East Durham & Houghall Community College
Learning
Featured Case Studies
East Durham College
Client
East Durham & Houghall Community College
Project
New college site design and build
Value
£26m/ €34.7m
Requirement:
Bringing together two existing campuses, the client's aim was to provide a purpose built, modern, state of the art learning facility capable of delivering a full range of academic and vocational courses. We were appointed to develop the initial design, paying particular attention to sustainability, flexibility, space utilisation, and budget requirements.
Our Solution:
- We started work with a detailed familiarisation and review of the initial design, paying particular attention to space utilisation, and were successful in making a number of significant improvements to the internal layout of the building.
- We were then asked to review the external appearance of the building, paying particular attention to the choice of external materials and main entrance designs, working to fulfil the client's aspiration for a "landmark building with significant kerbside appeal".
- Internally we saw an opportunity to create a flexible, dramatic and colourful environment; this is typified by the central atrium which not only serves as a social hub and informal learning space, from which all areas of the building can be accessed, but also provides an exciting experience for building users, be they passing through, using the training restaurant, theatre, commercial hair and beauty salons, or just chilling out in the spacious ground floor refectory area.
- With a strong focus on vocational courses we created commercially and industrially realistic environments for students to work from, further reinforcing the college's already strong ties with the surrounding community.
- The college's reputation as one of the country's leading sports academies was further enhanced by the introduction of a new 500 seat sports facility, capable of hosting televised sporting events, and the addition of a new state of the art, all-weather football pitch similar to the ones used by premiership clubs.