LIVERPOOL’S brightest edition to the skyline is already catching the eye of designers months before it is officially unveiled.

The University of Liverpool’s Active Learning Lab, which lights up the skyline with hundreds of light-emitting diodes, picked up a top award from the Manchester Society of Architects.

And the £32m engineering building has found its way onto the pages of many architecture and design publications ahead of its official opening in December.

Built on Brownlow Hill, the facade is made up of 826 glass panels which float one metre above the main building and contain hundreds of LEDs.

The latest LED technology means the changing coloured display’s energy costs are reduced – and they can be used to spell out words.

The coloured lights will also be used to celebrate events such as St George’s Day, St Patrick’s Day and Christmas Day.

Visible from Wirral and on flights from and to John Lennon Airport, the laboratory can house 250 students at one time – an entire year’s intake and almost unprecedented in any other engineering department.

Professor of Materials Engineering Peter Goodhew said: “About five years ago, we realised that our methods of teaching our curriculum and the experience we were giving our students were getting increasingly less relevant to the way in which engineers are employed.

“We realised not only that methods of teaching needed to change but, crucially, the spaces in which teaching and learning were carried out also needed to be re-designed.