We need to boost our vocational workforce, which starts with the buildings that deliver the training. Funding, planning and the role of the architect are critical
The UK needs more construction, engineering and healthcare workers: on this, governments of all shades agree. But the current system of post-16 vocational and skills education to train such workers has been described by new education secretary Bridget Phillipson as ‘fragmented and broken’.
In the month it took office, this government established a new body, Skills England, to develop a fresh strategy. It could herald more change for a vocational system that is, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, on at least its eighth major reform since 2010, with the roll-out of T-level qualifications.
As well as navigating a changing system, colleges are having to tailor curriculums to fast-evolving industry needs. All this is taking place in a project delivery context that has long been dominated by piecemeal funding initiatives and procurement approaches that have put contractors in the driving seat.
Still, there’s a tentative sense of optimism in the air. ‘We’re feeling that further education may be turning a corner,’ says Mark Ellson, director of Holmes Miller. That perception is based on several factors, including changes in procurement and delivery processes driven by the post-Grenfell review of building safety.
‘The notion of designing while you’re building is coming to an end and there now seems to be more scrutiny of the quality of buildings being produced, not only in terms of legislation and compliance, but also the fact that the design intent can’t be diluted,’ he says. ‘For a lot of our projects now, we’re performing a technical architect role, supporting the contractor on delivery, while working to ensure that the finer details of the client’s brief are resolved and implemented.’
On a lot of our projects now we perform a technical architect role, supporting the contractor on delivery while working on finer details
Defining the details
This was the case for the London South Bank Technical College project in Vauxhall, a flagship facility established by London South Bank University and Lambeth College and funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and London Education Action Partnership. The college, completed last year, was intended to be a catalyst for change in its Wandsworth Road setting and, as the first building in a broader masterplan, a scene-setter.
‘We had a course of work with the contractor to see the project through RIBA stage 4 and 5,’ says Ellson. ‘That means you’re still working with the client team, which was to some degree still evolving the brief, while the design was going through [construction]’. Shifting curriculum needs meant resolving furniture locations and data points, making spaces bespoke and maintaining flexibility where needed through these late stages. ‘Leading the client team to get down to 1:50 layouts and 1:5 detail was really important,’ he continues, ‘particularly when dealing with laboratories and dental suites where fit-out and services become a crucial part of the final design.’
Dentistry, construction and science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (STEAM) are among the skills taught in the 10-storey, BREEAM Excellent building. ‘The college is quite ambitious in terms of apprenticeships, so offers training in areas like photovoltaic installation,’ explains Mariyam Afnida, associate and technical lead at Holmes Miller.
Workshops occupy the building’s lower levels with general classrooms above, all topped by a gaming studio. Throughout, a ‘digital spine’ of stacked double-height spaces allows for collaborative learning using advanced technologies.
With its bronze anodised aluminium cladding and raw concrete interior with exposed services, the building has an industrial aesthetic. ‘The whole idea of the building is that it feels less like a classroom and more like a workspace,’ says Afnida. ‘It is part of the learning process to have the services exposed so that students can draw on the installations around them’.
The whole idea of the building is that it feels less like a classroom and more like a workspace
Sometimes, however, evolution of the brief is more radical. In late 2020 the architect came to work on the consented plans for Wolverhampton Council’s learning quarter, which will provide facilities for City of Wolverhampton College, the Central Library and adult education services. The plans for the main campus, combining new build and refurbishment, were based on a brief set in 2016 and had undergone numerous revisions following funding and leadership uncertainty. In the intervening four years, college needs changed and the council had declared its climate commitments.
When Holmes Miller came on board, it essentially took the plans for the main campus back to the start of RIBA stage 3. ‘We had to talk to the client about evolution of the building’s energy model and opportunities to include increased renewable technologies, alongside redistribution of key student spaces to suit the refinement of the brief,’ explains Ellson. Following a redesign requiring multiple variations to the planning consent, the project is now under construction, with backing from DfE and the government’s Levelling Up Fund.
Among the areas the architect has introduced is a 5m by 30m central anchor space, linking a feature staircase with the refectory. It is, says Ellson, ‘the heart of the campus, where students can meet, sit, congregate and hopefully navigate their way around’.
The building has workshops and tv studios on lower floors with classrooms on upper storeys. Curriculum changes meant IT was increased and the art department expanded and made more prominent. ‘The college has also made a lot of the facilities street-facing, so areas like the hair and beauty department and pupil support rooms can be reached from the street, almost like a high street, which means there’s an interface with the public at ground level,’ adds Ellson.
There’s even a skills employment centre on the ground floor, open to all.
The project’s delivery tells a story, says Ellson. ‘It is perhaps a bit endemic of how the further education sector is having to respond, because funding has been so hit and miss over previous decades.’
Taking ownership
Plans for a STEM building for Truro and Penwith College in Bodmin, Cornwall, also evolved after receiving planning consent. A main phase of campus development, comprising a free school and sports facilities, was completed in 2018 with DfE funding but the college’s standalone Ottery Building fell outside that funding stream and had to gain its own backing. That was secured two years later under the government’s T-level roll-out, with support from the Local Enterprise Partnership and the government’s Getting Building Fund.
‘We tend to find colleges – and schools – have something more tangible to enable them to access funding if they have planning,’ says Cian Spowart, director of Poynton Bradbury Architects. ‘As a client, Truro & Penwith College are well-informed in terms of navigating the funding context.’
The building’s initial design featured classrooms and workshops, predominantly for construction and digital skills training. By the time the architect returned to the project, engineering workshops, ward-like healthcare space and a conference centre to enhance industry links had been added to the brief.
From the project’s inception, the architect had considered the potential to incorporate a mezzanine floor into the building; it provided a ready solution to the demand for more space. The building, opened last year, has a wide ground floor corridor to accommodate students and lockers, flanked by workshops and an electronics laboratory. Above are general classrooms, the health simulation suite, learning resource centre and staff offices, while the top floor contains classrooms, conference suite and digital laboratory.
We tend to find colleges – and schools - have something more tangible to enable them to access funding if they have planning
The addition of the health suite required the architect to pivot rapidly, capturing revisions to the brief, such as facsimile medical gas pipelines. The conference suite was created in a space originally intended to house the digital laboratory, which is now in a classroom. ‘It’s really crucial to have lots of general teaching rooms that can adapt – and the right infrastructure,’ Spowart stresses.
The building is topped with two mono-pitched roofs incorporating photovoltaic panels, and is clad in silver anodised aluminium and white insulated concrete panels. These are, says Spowart, ‘part of the language of materials of the college’s campuses’.
Under the design-and-build contract, the architect initially worked with the contractor before moving to a technical architect role with the college. But when the contractor went into administration during construction, the architect also worked to keep the project moving, helping the college complete the envelope package and get the building weathertight. ‘The whole team got together – the client, project manager and incumbent design team – and we got on with it,’ Spowart says.
He too sees broader shifts in procurement. ‘There is an opportunity for us to work with clients to take more ownership and responsibility,’ he says.
But he cautions: ‘The emerging challenge is the growing popularity of alternative procurement routes, such as construction management, so where is our role in that world?’. These are thorny issues, he accepts, continuing, ‘I feel ownership is swinging back, but we’ve got to work harder to make sure we do stay involved.’