Leicester College Abbey Park Building

19 Jan 2009 Leicester College's £25 million Abbey Park Building handed over Leicester College's new city centre Abbey Park Campus has been handed over. Designed by the further education sector's leading architecture practice, Sheffield-based Bond Bryan Architects, the new Abbey Park site offers 10,500 sq metres of educational facilities on five storeys, including dance and drama performance spaces, recording studios, a business education facility and laboratories for science, maths, and humanities. Bond Bryan's project architect, Adam Jones, says: "By using state-of-the-art thermal modelling software from early concept stages the design team worked with the College to maximise the benefits of thermal mass, orientation, daylighting, night-time cooling and mechanical heat recovery. "The resultant design minimises operational energy demand and far exceeds the requirements of the current Part L Building Regulations. "The site will also generate some of its own power: a wind turbine has been installed and is operational." The campus boasts one of the highest energy efficiency levels where a significant reduction in carbon emissions has been achieved through a carefully considered environmental control strategy. Maggie Galliers, principal of Leicester College, says: "This is one of the biggest transformations of Further Education in Leicester for many years. Our Abbey Park Campus will be an entirely brand new building with state of the art facilities fit for learning in the 21st century." Leicester College Abbey Park Building images / information received 190109