FEATURE FOCUS: TACKLING STUDENT OBESITY


An active campus – how University of Warwick is building a community focused on health


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ince its completion, the multi-million- pound Sports and Wellness Hub at


University of Warwick has played a pivotal role in supporting the university’s ambition of becoming the “most physically active campus community in the UK by 2020”, having replaced the old sports centre on campus. From a commercial perspective the new hub is already delivering for the university, increasing its number of local adult community members from 175 to 1800 and counting. Similarly, when comparing data, the newly completed hub has more than doubled the number of visitors with its highest ever footfall in January 2020 welcoming over 70,000 visits. Delivered by contractor Willmott Dixon, the


£37 million project was managed by the same team behind the university’s Oculus Building in 2016 who deployed their award-winning experience for managing complex construction work within a live campus environment. The project’s construction manager, Nick


Preedy, picked up the gold award in the retail and leisure category at CIOB’s Construction Manager of the Year Awards 2019 for his influential impact on the project including the movement of 40,000 cubic metres of material and a saving of £1million for the university. Speaking of the project, Nick said: “The sports


and wellness hub was a hugely exciting and unique project to work on. The design of the building and the level of smart technology that has been implemented throughout is


outstanding. I was very focussed on delivering the project to the highest quality, and this is something that carried on all the way through alongside our design and supply chain partners. “The scheme was fascinating to work on as it


featured extensive innovative use of digital construction technology and elements of offsite construction, which was crucial in achieving a quality product on time and under budget.” From a 25-metre, 12-lane swimming pool to a


17m-high climbing wall, the 16,684 sq ft hub features smart building technology throughout, with coolant technology providing the temperature for any given sport, and dynamic lighting automatically adjusting in certain rooms at specific times of the day to create the optimal ambience.


Working towards a shared vision The sprawling facility opened ahead of the European Corporate Games and opened during Coventry’s tenure as the 2019 European City of Sport – meaning the new building’s purpose always considered the wider community and how it could enhance sporting both regionally and nationally. Lisa Dodd-Mayne, director of Sport and Active


Communities at the university knew it was crucial for the hub to help people engage in sport, through creating positive experiences and more importantly, helping sport become part of everything people do. Speaking of this strategic work, Lisa said: “Here at the university we are customer focused,


26 www.education-today.co.uk


meaning everything we do needs to support the health and wellbeing of our students, staff and the wider community. Because of this we wanted the sports hub to be more than a building and have a real impact on changing individuals lives. “As we started the journey to create the hub,


we agreed four core objectives: that the building would offer the best customer experience, include participation in its design, help to build a community and finally that upon its completion, the hub would sustainably contribute back to the university.” Today’s students expect high-end


accommodation, multiple dining options, and modern fitness and recreational facilities, yet fulfilling these expectations can be difficult and expensive. In 2013, the University of Warwick recognised that it needed to invest in its facilities and began to work on a development plan to create a distinctive campus driving participation and sustainability.


Capitalising on Warwick’s uniqueness With the intention of providing opportunities for indoor and outdoor activities – and linking the hub to other facilities via a network of paths, cycle ways, and activity areas – the university appointed an architect to design the facility. Andy Mytom, from David Morley Architects, was involved in the project from 2013, he said: “I was originally brought on board to support the university in undertaking an opinion piece of research, which was a valuable exercise to look at what it was doing and what it might do in the


April 2020


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