STEAM ACADEMY, BRIDGEND COLLEGE, WALES 21
arrival in the building’s reception, so there’s a two-storey green wall, and the social breakout spaces above look down onto the double-height spaces. The architects created a clever circular aperture above the voids cut into the plasterboard, beneath a standard square rooflight, adding a “sense of elevation” to the space.
The client wanted the spaces to give users a sense of being connected to a ‘greater whole,’ so that the individual classes or disciplines would not feel cut off from the rest of the building. “So if you were sitting in a classroom you could see into the workshops, and vice versa,” says Baker. We wanted students to “have a sense of being part of a wider learning environment.”
Flexible spaces
The architects provided great amounts of flexibility to the workshops, as “to be able to alter the space was really important to the client, as they don’t know how the curriculum may evolve over the coming years.”
The workshops are “one big open shed, basically,” but they have storey height stud wall partitions to provide acoustic protection. Easily demountable, workshops can be enlarged or subdivided as required. There is one full-height partition, to cut off the particularly disruptive levels of noise from the mechanical workshops. Some of the glazed classrooms, for example those overlooking the car maintenance area, have two ‘skins’ of double glazing, with a “big gap” between, and the final part of a belt and braces solution being a twin wall consisting of concrete frame and metal stud and plasterboard beyond, plus insulation, “just to achieve the acoustics we needed to.” This obviously came at a cost, but, the final build cost was circa £21.8m (under 2,800/m2), therefore within budget, and no value engineering required. Baker comments on the successful procurement when it came to the subcontractors: “We provided a really robust set of information at Stage 4, the contractors knew what they had to price, and they all came in relatively close. The contract was tendered on mean cost.”
Landscaping & sustainability The architects used their own landscaping consultant, but involved the college’s horticultural department in the design and physical planting of the site, which contributed towards their curriculum.
ADF JUNE 2022
On the 4,500 m2 roof there are 3,000 m2 of PV panels, and data on the electricity generated is on constant display in the reception area. There is greywater recycling and the concrete is contributing to the passive control of the internal temperature.
Conclusion
Bridgend College fully embraced the concept of the flexible break-out areas to provide for new ways of learning and fully supported the design team to create these environments within the final designs. However, the team was relieved to discover that things have gone according to plan, and these spaces are very well used and enjoyed by staff and students. Baker says: “When we revisit the site, all of these spaces are really well used, there are always people and groups in them, whether for social or structured learning.” Class-based teaching still forms a large part of what the college does on the campus, but students have also embraced the flexible spaces naturally, whether doing tasks alone, or collaborating.”
A vast improvement on the college’s former STEM facilities, and a highly successful example of Design & Build for the architects, this building represents a transformation in the students’ experience, to a much more inclusive one. Rio Architects’ design has been validated by their “extremely positive” feedback received so far since the building opened to students in September 2021. g
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“For me, Design & Build works when you design up to Stage 4, with the client’s requirements” Andrew Baker, Rio Architects
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