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Nightingale Associates is no stranger to delivering solutions for the Higher and Further Education sector, having designed our first College in 1994. We empathise with the enhanced pressures on today’s institutions to be a ‘learning centre of choice’, and experience has taught us how architecture can play an important role in attracting and retaining students.
We are also proactively assisting Universities and Colleges satisfy their new objective to be Carbon Neutral, by providing guidance on simple, economical environmental solutions. Environmental sustainability is high on our agenda, reducing long-term running costs and helping under-pin our client’s ‘green’ vision.
The £4.9m Fashion Retail Academy is the UK's first national skills academy. Procured through the Arcadia Group, Learning and Skills Council and other sponsors, the facility introduces students to the practical and vocational skills required to meet the challenges of fashion retail.
This is a vibrant and inspirational learning environment, with high-quality finishes to reflect retail settings. There is maximum impact in the main entrance area, met with a three-storey atrium - enabling the academy to showcase student's work, in the forms of mannequins, exhibition space and the capability to project images onto a large central screen.
This style is carried through the rest of the building, with contemporary finishes, exposed soffits, concealed smart boards and maximum glazing to flood the rooms with natural light. The design stimulates discussion between students, offering display areas, multi-purpose design studios and breakout spaces - a project based learning environment was created.
Bournemouth University is made up from a very diverse range of buildings on two campuses.
The University’s vision is to recreate itself as a centre of excellence by providing a consistent level of well designed enhancements to the existing University buildings. A sample of these refurbishment projects include:: Royal London House, Poole House, Yeovil House, Studland House, the Learnhigher Centre, Dorset & Christchurch House, Talbot Campus Library and the Executive Business School.
The Clinical Education Centre is an outstanding medical education facility for both the University Hospital of North Staffordshire and Keele University.
The main objective of the customer’s brief was to create a flagship building, which would raise the profile and status of both the Hospital and University. The clearly defined form of the architectural elements in juxtaposition with the dramatic and dynamic axis along the spine of the building interacts to produce a synthesis of space and light.
A major element of the building is the two-storey library rotunda where a central cylindrical light well diffuses daylight into the ground floor study and reading areas. The strong form of the library in conjunction with its glazed façade and elevated position make it a beacon for this prestigious development, day and night.