This article draws together two linked studies on formal teaching spaces within one university. The first consisted of a multi-method analysis, including observations of four teaching events, interviews with academics and estates staff, analysis of architectural plans, and a talking campus tour. The second study surveyed 166 students about their perceptions of existing teaching spaces and dreams of ideal spaces, eliciting qualitative comments. Researchers used a comparative analysis of the data to generate themes. Academics and students held differing conceptions of space. For students, a functional view prevailed with teacher-centred and dominant approaches (lectures, seminars, tutorials) constraining their imagination of fresh possibilities. Academics reflected on the limits and potential of spaces, surfacing more abstract concepts about familiarity, invisibility, space-time dimensions, territoriality and collegiality. The article explores the boundaries that space may place over imagined and alternative pedagogies, and concludes that familiar, computer-networked and conventional spaces may re-inscribe hierarchical, teacher-centred approaches.