The project sought to adapt the existing building for modern flexible teaching methods with a great emphasis on technology. The College has been developed as a hub for multi-agency health and therapy provision and to provide short break accommodation, with focus on supporting young people with complex needs towards a more independent living. When it is fully open it will accommodate up to 50 young people.
The new provision is in use all year round, the FE College undertakes courses longer than the usual academic year and learners are actively involved within the community, accessing community facilities and allowing the community to use the café and shop within new college setting.
Our response to the complex brief and the listed nature of the building is to retain as much of the existing as possible while introducing elements of new build where necessary. Other repairs and alterations intend to return areas of the building to its original design (to unpick poor quality adaptations and modifications since its original opening).
There are two significant elements of new build on the site. A new glazed circulation route which links the courtyard between the two wings of the existing building and a new short-stay accommodation wing for learners from the College and the wider community.
The new glazed link will perform several important roles for the new building occupiers: getting around the College safely, creating a boundary to the newly created café courtyard and providing essential space for mobility storage.
The new short-stay accommodation wing is positioned at either side of the canopy at the Eastern end of the site. Both sides of the accommodation are single storey and constructed out of prefabricated timber panels all designed to meet PassivHaus certification.
Photographs by Simon Kennedy.
