Newcastle College - The Lifestyle Academy: Scottish Design Awards 2007 - Public Building Shortlist: RMJM
Lifestyle Academy Newcastle, Rye Hill Campus
Lifestyle Academy : schools of beauty, sport & tourism
£16m
Facilities: teaching spaces, bar, restaurant, bistro, spa, gym, hair & beauty salons
photos from RMJM Architects
SPACE - Newcastle College:
Address: Rye Hill campus
Cost: £2m
Higher Education Centre
Architects: RMJM
Location: adj. Newcastle College Performance Academy
RMJM received three RIBA Awards in 2005 for its Performance Academy at Newcastle College, Oxford University's new Chemistry Research Laboratory and the Scottish Parliament building which was designed in partnership with the late Enric Miralles' and his practice EMBT
RMJM Architects' Building PR: Plans unveiled for the Newcastle College Music, Performing Arts and Media Centre
Plans for the UK’s largest further education music, performing arts and media centre - The Performance Academy - were revealed on Friday by Peter Slee, the Vice Principal of Newcastle College.
The MPAM centre, situated on the college’s Rye Hill Campus overlooking the river Tyne, was designed by Edinburgh-based architects RMJM who were selected from a shortlist of six for the project. RMJM are also providing structural and M&E engineering as well as landscape architecture services. The centre is the first phase of a series of developments planned over the next 5 years aimed at regenerating the campus and the surrounding community.
No larger photo
image by RMJM Architects
The 9,000 sqm building is now on site and is set to be completed by Autumn 2004. The design is essentially split into two parts. To the back is a large metal clad box containing large span spaces including a 250-seat theatre, music venue, a TV studio and acting and dance centres. Many of these are black box spaces requiring little or no daylight with the exception of the 6 dance studios, located on the top floor, which benefit from natural overhead light. To the front is a glass-clad box accommodating small span spaces such as classrooms, seminar rooms and staff rooms, which enjoy more daylight and natural ventilation. A void separates the front and back box allowing daylight deep into the plan and providing a slot for vertical circulation.
The front of the building features a 70 x 9 metre cantilevered exoskeleton truss which is being manufactured by the same company that fabricated the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Integrated in this feature above the building’s entrance is a polycarbonate-cladded wall that allows images to be projected on the building at night, providing a dramatic expression of the interior activities.
RMJM are working closely with Sandy Brown Associates on the acoustics of the performance spaces and the theatre design.
No larger photo
image from RMJM Architects
The Performance Academy adds to RMJM’s extensive experience in the education sector which includes the award-winning William Gates Computer Laboratory for the University of Cambridge, Chemistry Research Laboratories for the University of Oxford and the de Havilland Campus for the University of Hertfordshire.
RMJM: Newcastle College Music, Performing Arts & Media Centre - Building PR
090503
Newcastle College Sixth Form Academy also by RMJM
Newcastle Dance City
Other RMJM College Buildings:
Fife College
Lauder College
Performance Academy at Newcastle College : Scottish Design Awards 2005 - Best
Publicly Funded Building commendation
World Architecture : e-architect - a guide to key buildings across the globe
Newcastle Architecture
Newcastle College architects - RMJM
Newcastle College - The Performance Academy : Roses Design Awards 2005 - Best
Public Building: Bronze
Comments / photos for the Newcastle College Building page welcome:
info@e-architect.co.uk
Newcastle College : page - adrian welch / isabelle lomholt