The reception area of the Barberry Building

News

Landmark college
redevelopment to go ahead

05 December 2008

Leading architect’s design for £79 million college development gets green light.

Planning consent has been granted for the £79 million redevelopment of SEEVIC College, situated in Benfleet, Essex. Nightingale Associates, a leading architectural practice specialising in education, health and science buildings for the public sector, have today released images of its design.

SEEVIC is currently one of the largest and most successful sixth form colleges in the country. The redevelopment of the college will provide it with 22,000 sq m of new and refurbished facilities enabling it to provide efficient, adaptable and sustainable accommodation.

“The scheme has been designed to meet the needs of the college’s changing and diverse curriculum and to provide staff and students with up-to-date, modern facilities.

“It was also designed to provide an attractive yet environmentally sustainable structure within which to deliver a high quality learning environment for students. On top of this, the building is easy to maintain and cost-effective to run.”

Hemendra Kothari, Director, Nightingale Associates

The design also includes a striking glazed ‘street’, which will provide the college with an impressive entrance and a much-needed prominent presence on the A13. The ‘street’ also links together all of the teaching blocks and the central Learning Resources Centre.

“By designing the accommodation blocks as a series of pavilions, which are linked together by the glazed street, the college will be able to enjoy integrated facilities. This also dealt with the challenge of working around an existing row of mature trees onsite and along the boundary; the position of the trees meant that the new college development was limited to orientation in a linear north-south direction. The pavilions maintain a gradual transition between various parts of the complex.”

Kothari continued

The College, which is attracting and recruiting a growing number of students across a diverse curriculum, sought proposals to accommodate this growth and provide facilities to deliver education in a range of subject areas including: Arts & Media; Business Studies; Humanities; Maths, Science and Technology; Social Sciences; Sports & Leisure; Enrichment Services; Education and training for further education; Construction; and Retail.

Included in the accommodation will be:

Environmental sustainability was also forefront to the design of the College. It contains many carefully-planned features designed to increase energy efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions and meet the LSC’s BREEAM requirements. These include:

Construction is due to start onsite in 2009.