This paper looks at the link between enhancing education and ensuring an innovative fit-for-purpose estate. It argues that a nuanced approach and joined-up dialogue is needed between university staff whose remit covers these areas. Drawing from fifteen semi-structured interviews with students and staff at a research-intensive university in London, UK, the project offers a window into the relationship between the institution's innovative education approach (which brings research and education closer together, so all students learn about research and have opportunities to conduct it) and the university's spaces. The paper outlines the institution's approach to research-based education and then moves on to unpack four key space principles to implement a research-based education strategy which is sensitive to a university's physical environment.