Wiltshire College & University Centre, Salisbury Campus

Having secured £24million SWLEP funding Wiltshire College was keen to embark on an ambitious overhaul of both their Lackham and Salisbury sites to further improve their high-quality provision of further education facilities for vocational apprenticeships through to degree level courses.

With a successful relationship already established with the College, AWW was ideally positioned and pleased to support them in the delivery of the progression of these campus sites.

Located on Southampton Road, the aspiration for the Salisbury Campus was to rationalise and upgrade the existing estate that consisted of a collection of buildings from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

AWW’s vision was to deliver a high-quality new building that provides a clear frontage to Southampton Road, showcasing college life as well as improving the amenity space on site for students and staff.

Moving away from the traditional arrangement of classrooms along a spine corridor, the desire was to create a central full height atrium with visibility across all floors and into the differing curriculum areas. Given the nature of the offer at Wiltshire College this varies from construction trades through to film and media providing an active buzz throughout the building.

The existing campus suffered from poor wayfinding and lacked a clear main entrance, consequently a key driver for the design was to simplify access establishing clear legibility into and through the buildings.

A similar material palette to the Chippenham campus was used to create a cross-college language.

Thanks to our relationship with the College, it enabled us to evaluate the work undertaken to date, replicate successes and adopt any lessons learnt into our design.

AWW worked closely with the College running extensive user workshops, refining the brief to balance department aspirations and wider budgetary constraints. There was also a requirement that the College remain operational throughout which required consultation with both the College and contractors to facilitate.

The project was delivered in three phases by three separate contractors; external façade over-cladding of two pre-existing 1970s buildings; internal refurbishment of the existing buildings; and demolition and construction of the new building and external works.

The project promotes a fabric first approach; consideration of thermal comfort and cooling was essential from the outset. Excellent airtightness and insulating properties designed into the college ensure that the energy needed to operate the building is very limited. A vast array of solar panels then provide renewable energy to support the necessary in use demand.

The use of 3D visualisations and virtual walk-throughs were utilised in the early concept design to assist in communicating ideas and concepts, bringing the proposals to life for the College and stakeholders, and encouraging their involvement in the design process.

The new building maximises natural daylight and views internally and externally. The existing College suffered from overheating in the summer and extensive thermal loss in the winter, so achieving thermal comfort for occupiers was a priority.

The abundance of diversity across the adjacent spaces meant good acoustic separation and detailing was fundamental. The creation of hard and soft landscaping around the campus also improves the amenity facilities for staff and students, which they had lacked before.