Bath Spa University and Skanska have celebrated the signing of a contract for the development of a world-class academic building in the heart of the Newton Park campus. Skanska, was awarded the main construction contract as part of the overall £40 million development which will transform academic facilities for students.
The exciting new academic building will provide state-of-the-art teaching facilities, technologyenabled study space and social learning space. It will also offer a superb new digital space with the best resources for teaching digital media-related courses in the south-west. It forms the first phase of a wider masterplan that will include new student accommodation in the next phase.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Frank Morgan said: “With this project Bath Spa University moves to a new stage in its progress as one of the UK’s most successful modern universities. The new building will consolidate our position as a major provider of courses involving digital technology with all that means for the regional economy and the employability of our students. We are
delighted to be working with Skanska who share our environmental ethos and will use their experience of educational settings to produce an outstanding building of real architectural distinction.”
The visually stunning academic building will sit within the existing campus and has been designed in consultation with English Heritage and Natural England. It will blend sympathetically into the existing estate to provide a unique blend of history and modernity.
Environmental solutions and sustainability are at the heart of both Bath Spa University’s and Skanska's approach to this project. The building will achieve the highest standard of environmental performance - ‘BREEAM excellent’ (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method). To deliver this, Skanska will incorporate elements such as
energy saving lighting systems and a ‘living’ sedum roof. A new high-tech energy centre will be built to support the development.
Commenting, Martin Nunns, managing director of Skanska Building – Central and Regions said: "Skanska are delighted to be working with a University that shares our environmental principles. While Bath Spa University has a First Class Award in the People & Planet Green League, Skanska UK has won the British Quality Foundation’s Achievement Award for Sustainable Future and was named The UK’s Best Green Company by the Sunday Times. It’s the
perfect partnership. ”
Skanska’s experience of working in educational settings is strong in the south-west. We were responsible for the UK’s first Building Schools for the Future programme in Bristol and over recent years have completed 20 schools across the region, most recently All Saints Academy in Cheltenham.
The construction of the state-of-the-art academic building will commence mid-2012 and will be complete in early 2014.