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COMMENT
COMMENT
Answering the call for adaptable further education facilities
Andrew Baker of Rio Architects looks at how further education providers are calling for adaptability in their buildings, and how designers can offer unified, coherent and practical facilities for student, giving a recent Welsh example
O
ngoing reforms in post-16 education in Wales and the wider UK are placing increasing pressures on colleges and the environments within which they teach. Welsh Government Ministerial priorities seek to provide a Further Education (FE) system that responds to the continually changing needs of the local industry and economic landscape, while also serving the rapidly evolving learning preferences of students. The demands on the curriculum can alter dramatically within a short period of time, giving college leadership teams the challenge of how to prepare a suitable learning environment which meets the specific needs within each academic year.
The adaptability of college estates and facilities is key to overcoming these challenges and is a primary element of a good project brief for any new build or refurbishment scheme. During the early briefing stages of the 8500 m2
spaces can together cater to a changing curriculum more effectively and efficiently than the more traditional approach of providing a repetitive single classroom typology.
Formal and informal teaching and study spaces appropriately accommodate class sizes or groups ranging from eight to 60. They are conveniently located to adequately support the specialist teaching workshops and can be easily shared between different departments through cross-curriculum timetabling to improve the utilisation factor. These spaces also work alongside one another to
STEAM (Science,
Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) Academy development for Bridgend College at their Pencoed campus in South Wales, the discussions were very much focused on how to create coherent, harmonious, and inspiring design solutions that delivered cost effectiveness through spatial efficiency while also addressing the need to create spaces that could ‘morph’ in response to changing curriculum requirements.
The answer to the puzzle was multifaceted. In order to create more flexibility around the size of spaces, folding screens and partitions were reviewed and considered, but these can be costly and don’t always address the fundamental issues. The solutions lie in basic principles of design; the range, layout, configuration and sizes of spaces and how these spaces are linked to one another. Alongside specialist teaching spaces and workshops such as Mechanical Engineering, or Vehicle Engineering at the STEAM Academy, which have extremely specific and unique requirements, there are general teaching and study spaces of varying shapes and sizes, some of which are enclosed and some are open areas adjacent to the common circulation areas. This range and combination of
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
HEAD OF STEAM
The design of the STEAM Academy development for Bridgend College followed “basic principles – range, layout, configuration and size of spaces, and how they are linked”
ADF MAY 2024
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