Landmark college development
plans to go ahead
12 January 2009
Planning permission has been approved for the £90 million redevelopment of Guildford College’s Stoke Park Campus, designed by leading education architects, Nightingale Associates.
The grand 28,000m/sq scheme, which is one of Nightingale Associates’ largest ever projects of its kind, involves a complete overhaul of the College’s facilities at its Stoke Park campus.
The multi-million pound development will include a number of unique and bold features, including a series of individually-designed ‘Pavilions in the Park’, which will form elegant ‘Academies’, each displaying its own identity within a consistent architectural language. There will also be a total integration of landscape and buildings, offering an opportunity for outside ‘rooms’ and teaching spaces. The campus will contain an extensive range of facilities to serve the needs of the College’s 12,000 students, including those for business, technology and catering.
Nightingale Associates has been working closely with the college to develop a proposal that will transform the college’s built environment in order to conform to new Government initiatives aiming to close the skills gap by 2020.
The design of the scheme was based on the aims of the College, of which the following were paramount:
- Flexibility – to accommodate current and evolving teaching trends.
- Future-proofing – to enable space re-allocation and reconfiguration.
- Boldness – to look beyond the tried and tested.
- Creativity – to energise and inspire the college and the wider community.
- Supportiveness – to provide a safe and comfortable environment for students and staff.
- Enterprise and efficiency – to ensure that all spaces support exciting and varied functions.
“With this design, we have been able to integrate functionality with individuality by incorporating a number of interesting spaces in which learning can take place.
“The bold, contemporary theme of this building is key to ensuring a simple, clear organisational framework and reflects the college’s mission, character and qualities.”
Christian Lawrence, Director, Nightingale Associates
Throughout the planning process, Nightingale Associates also continued its successful partnership with Greenhill Jenner, with which it is also working on for a £320 million 'super hospital' bid in Southmead, Bristol. Greenhill Jenner played a key role in supporting Nightingale Associates' planning application for the College, for which construction is now on schedule to start towards late 2009.
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