Bond Bryan Receives Planning Permission for £41 Million West Cheshire College

Construction Students Can Build House Inside College

West Cheshire College has received planning permission for two new-build projects as designed by the UK's leading education specialists Bond Bryan Architects. The buildings are at the college's Ellesmere Port campus and on the Handbridge campus in Chester where students of different trades will be able to work alongside each other as on a building site, and can even build a house within the college's internal project court.



The approximate construction value of both schemes together is around £41 million and work on both schemes is due to start in March 2009, with the college taking full occupation of its new buildings in time for the new academic year in 2011.
West Cheshire College, a specialist vocational college, has taken an individual approach to its campus redevelopment, naming it 'Building a Difference - not just a Different Building'. The College aims to maximise organisational performance through its new buildings and motivate young people to learn in different ways.
Bond Bryan Architects' associate director, James Pemberton, says: "West Cheshire College has invested considerable time working with the design team and planning fundamental changes to its approach to learners, methods of curriculum delivery, staffing, processes, systems and services.
"This has resulted in the College developing a new approach to its interface with the public and to delivery mechanisms based on real work environments, vocationally related learning resource centres and skill-build areas.
"Bond Bryan Architects has developed two schemes in parallel with each other, whose design is founded on the need to encompass these aims."
The new building at Handbridge Campus will be 6,720m² accommodated in three floors with associated landscaping, service areas and parking.
James Pemberton explains: "The development consists of a rectilinear block, with accommodation over three floors. The central area of the building is a two-storey height 'project court', where students learning various construction trades will be able to build a complete house.
"The design for the College's campus at Ellesmere Port is a building area of 20,500m² with accommodation across five floors. The new-build element of the development is an L-shaped block meeting at a cylindrical form containing a circular ramp from the first to fourth floor."
Deputy Principal, Penny Horsefield said: "Work with Bond Bryan has been a real partnership experience. This is how the design process should work. The integration of a range of skills from the architects' team and the college team has produced a really unique further education solution which will take the teaching and learning experience in a vocational college to a new level."



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