Upfront

UPFRONT KEY REGIONAL STRATEGY BENEFITS FROM £3.1M STEM PROJECT IN MIDDLESBROUGH

When Middlesbrough College was selected by the Department for Education (DfE) to be a partner in the North East Institute of Technology (IoT) in 2019, this brought with it sole responsibility for delivering IoT-accredited courses in the Tees Valley area.

With the massive potential offered by emerging sectors such as digital, biologics and healthcare, significant opportunities continue to emerge for the area and, with these, come the need for a suitablyqualified and skilled workforce.

The existing state-of-the-art STEM centre at Middlesbrough College, opened in 2015, was, therefore, ideally placed to facilitate the learning of significant numbers of students with higher level technical skills, crucial to national, regional and local productivity growth.

As a result, an extension to the existing building was needed to enable the delivery of further courses.

Location

The college is located at the heart of the Tees Valley conurbation. Here, the region’s expertise has been built around its traditional strengths in shipbuilding, engineering, process industries and offshore oil and gas. Increasingly, low-carbon enterprises are flourishing here – an area which has the largest concentration of engineering businesses and employers in the North East.

The college campus lies within the Middlehaven regeneration area of the town. It is positioned over an infilled dock and the extension sits on a fully-suspended, ground-floor slab supported on piles.

The design brief

Designed by further education building design specialist, Bond Bryan Architects of Sheffield, several aspects arose from the consultation process which have influenced the final design. These included:

Placement of the new extension and its massing to ensure the entrances of the existing STEM building would be unaffected and the height of the new building continued with the same profile

Ensuring that the existing facilities within STEM could be utilised for the new extension yet, at the same time, meet curriculum needs

Ensuring that the existing industrial palette established for STEM would reflect continuity.

Mike Pitchford, Surgo Contracts Manager, Andy Laidler, Surgo Site Manager, Prof Brian Cox and Peter Bland, Assistant Principal – Estates (L to R)

Andrea Ashley, an Associate at Bond Bryan Architects, said: “The sustainability aim for the project was mainly focused on passive design measures, including maximising use of natural daylighting and ventilation, with due consideration given to ensure the building services design was both low carbon and energy efficient.

“To this end, a range of passive design methodologies were used, such as room depths adjusted to allow singlesided natural ventilation, and additional investment in the building fabric to increase airtightness and insulation levels.

“We decided to co-locate the IoT STEM extension alongside the highly-specialist, industry-standard equipment of the existing STEM centre because it would enable higher skilled learners to apply their knowledge and learning in state-ofthe-art facilities, in a ‘higher education’ corporate setting, befitting the delivery of IoT-accredited courses.”

The spaces had to accommodate a total of 318 students and staff; the gross internal floor area had to be 1100m2 in line with funding provision and include IT facilities, teaching and self-study zones, a Higher Education Learning Resource Centre, construction innovation suites and general teaching spaces, plus additional staff offices and work areas.

The resulting new building

Sits comfortably within the existing Middlehaven masterplan and buildings

Provides a higher education corporate environment – distinctive from other spaces within the college

Reflects the college’s aspirations, helping staff and students to achieve their goals

Creates a ‘seamless’ extension of the existing building – as though planned to be there from the outset

Is designed and constructed with best practice in mind so as not to affect the BREEAM rating of the original building.

Appointment of the building contractor

Newcastle-based Surgo Construction (Surgo) was selected on a design and build contract basis following a competitive tender after due consideration of the firm’s experience, track record and financial stability.

Surgo was well placed to take on the scheme for a number of reason. Firstly, prior experience at the site – Surgo constructed MC6 in 2015 (Middlesbrough College’s sixth form centre); also, Surgo can lay claim to many other successful, high-quality education and public sector projects completed on programme and to budget; and thirdly, it is a local SME contractor, with access to a strong, preexisting supply chain, minimising travel and carbon footprint for its team.

Work began in September 2020. The project formed part of the campus masterplan to relocate several remote buildings to a central site where the additional classrooms and training spaces would be able to offer increased numbers of higher education opportunities in courses like engineering and manufacturing technologies, construction planning and the built environment as well as information and communication technology and business management. 

Challenges

When construction work began, there was still a lockdown in operation, the earlier stages of which had taken their toll on supplies and staffing. To this end, the contract was partially affected by resource availability and material delivery lead times, however, practical completion still took place in time for the start of the new term in September 2021 with external landscaping works following on and turf laid at the end of November.

Support for the STEM centre

Staff and students welcomed the famous physicist, Professor Brian Cox, to the college in June 2021 where he had the chance to speak with young aspiring scientists and engineers. Professor Cox had opened the original STEM centre in 2015. He said: “Middlesbrough College is well ahead of the curve when it comes to delivering technical training and there’s a real understanding here of what the industry needs.

“We need more apprentices and STEM graduates and facilities like this, and the people here will be the driving force behind that – everyone will benefit from this investment.”

Commenting on the impact of the STEM centre overall in terms of its ability to provide exceptional teaching and learning facilities for its students, Peter Bland, Middlesbrough College’s Assistant Principal – Estates, said: “The college has helped transform this region’s economic competitiveness and this new investment will enhance the learning opportunities

available to our students and equip them with the technical skills needed to secure high-value jobs.”

In summing up the project, Martin Blight, Surgo’s Pre-Construction Director, said: “The STEM centre extension has not only increased the college’s original STEM centre space to enable the delivery of various new courses, it has also significantly enhanced the learning environment for the 3000 students (one fifth of the college’s overall student population) who will pass through the STEM centre each year.

“We were delighted to be appointed to this scheme and ideally qualified to handle it, given our prior experience at the site. It has allowed us to strengthen our professional relationship with Middlesbrough College and build on our extensive experience of delivering high-quality education facilities, whilst at the same time, play our part in supporting two key growth strands of the regional economy – science and technology.”  www.surgo.co.uk

Project team:

Project manager/cost consultant – Arcadis

Architect/landscape architect –

Bond Bryan Architects Principal designer – CK21 Consultants

Civil, structural, building services

and fire engineer – Cundall

Building contractor/

construction manager/QS/planning – Surgo