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STEAM ACADEMY, BRIDGEND COLLEGE, WALES
GREENING INDUSTRY The building’s open reception area combines an exposed industrial feel with a green wall, plus a screen displaying electricity generated by solar PVs on the roof
Road campus. However it also wanted to make some new additions as part of the STEAM remit. The architects carried out “extensive” surveys of the existing facilities and specialist equipment early on, in order to closely model the equipment they’d be needing to house. They also fully investigated the working practices of college tutors, to make the new facilities as efficient as possible.
Baker says that this approach was highly beneficial, and offset imminent design challenges, “as more people became engaged with the project from the client side, with their preferred teaching or operational methods.” The ‘A’ part of the STEAM equation didn’t however add too many design challenges in terms of new spaces. Baker explains that the ‘arts’ elements integrated here were generally manifested in the form of rooms where filming and production could take place, to help publicise the college’s activities, and included ‘green room’ facilities. In addition, there’s a large conference room, with retractable tiered seating and acoustic treatment for performances and presentations, plus a substantial lighting gantry.
There were some challenges around the
client’s remit moving during the briefing, expected in an emerging typology like
this. Certain areas of the curriculum were expanding, like the car mechanics teaching function (including one large workshop for training in maintenance of electric vehicles). As a result, client expectations were evolving as the architects were designing the project. “It was one area where there was a bit of uncertainty – as we were designing the curriculum and the brief was evolving.” Baker cautions that if a project is a Design & Build such as this, “Once the contractor’s on board, changes in the design can be expensive. It’s critical to have a thorough briefing and design process.” Where the college wanted to make a tweak on traditional teaching methods, with the help of the design, was to “integrate break out spaces” throughout the building. These would facilitate “more experimental learning methods,” i.e. flexible approaches to using the space, “alongside the traditional classroom formula.” Well-suited to more practical, task-based learning, this means that students can separate and perform a particular task in a break-out area, then come back to the classroom. With the project having a finite budget, the smaller break-out spaces allowed for a reduced number of traditional classrooms below that in the original brief, and so a reduced overall GIA. This was “a bit of
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