Newcastle College by RMJM

vocational learning Newcastle College rmjm Collaboration 1

Lifestyle Academy, Atrium 3

RMJM Vocational learning Community and identity Diversity changing space

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Officially Outstanding A shared AMBITION Case Study: Performance academy Case Study: lifestyle academy Case Study: Rye Hill House

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THEMES, IDEAS, Process

Case Study: space Case Study: Sixth form college

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Collaborators

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RMJM is an international architectural practice with offices throughout Europe, the Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific and The Americas. Our work encompasses architecture, sustainable design, urbanism, masterplanning, interior design and research and development. Our culturally diverse studios are made up of almost 1000 architects, designers and creative thinkers - comprising 50 nationalities working on projects in over 20 countries worldwide. 6

RMJM and our Global Education Studio

The education sector is evolving rapidly in response to globalisation. To compete, larger institutions need to be global enterprises to provide an integrated offer through collaboration and partnership. This exciting trend generates opportunities for cultural cohesion and individual empowerment, harnessing the transformational power of the knowledge-based economy. These opportunities also affect local educational institutions and our global perspective helps us to understand and interpret the local impact of wider trends in education. RMJM has a specialist team of architects working collaboratively and internationally with a wide range of leading academic and research-based institutions and local education institutions. Our unrivalled track record and our global network of studios means we have the capability, experience and understanding to design and deliver - wherever our clients are and whatever the scale of project. We enjoy the buzz of creativity and innovation that working as a team with education clients entails, helping to redefine project programmes, generating new spatial typologies and exploring alternative systems and materials. We thrive on achieving solutions that deliver real value for our clients, and especially for the people who teach and learn in our buildings.

vocational learning The demand for education with a focus on skills, employability and social mobility is universal. Vocational education colleges, community colleges, technical colleges and city colleges respond and react to their own geographic, cultural and economic agendas – but share a common purpose of empowering individuals with the knowledge and skills to progress in life and engage with an ever changing world.

RMJM understands the kaleidoscopic picture of opportunity that vocational learning offers. A high quality and responsive education sector enhances economic performance and transforms the life chances of people vocational education is the powerhouse of a high skills economy. The built environment required to deliver this learning experience is unique and diverse – with its quality having an enormous impact on students, staff and community. RMJM sees the link between architecture and opportunity as both a great catalyst and a distinct responsibility. A successful solution will create spaces for learning which will inspire, empower and change lives. Vocational colleges share a common purpose, but we recognise that each college is unique and a product of its own particular ‘DNA’ manifesting itself through students, staff, local community and the character and ambition they bring to create a distinctive culture. In response to this we collaborate with our college clients, starting a conversation to debate desires and opportunities in an open workshop forum that will inform our concepts and design outcomes.

inspire empower change lives

Good education equals good business and generating the right identity, or brand, to sell that business is a priority. To attract and retain the best staff and students from a local, national and international audience, a college in the 21st century needs an identity that captures the imagination, inspires confidence and quite simply looks like, and is, a great place to be. Subsequently, many colleges embark upon new developments that focus on innovation through iconic, landmark solutions that capitalise on what may be their only opportunity to make a real impact and contribution to the learning community. Our teams understand the balance between â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;iconics and economicsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and the opportunities that exist for colleges to maximise the visual impact their budget will support, while also delivering solutions that are financially viable and innovate to offer state of the art learning experiences. It is here, in creating these new expressions of identity, that RMJM has an enviable track record.

RMJM understands the synergy and opportunity which exist between a college and its wider community context. Learning community, social community and business community can thrive and grow from an effective and active interface. Vocational colleges have the capability and responsibility to inspire and motivate wider participation in learning. They can offer a transparent and welcoming face to the wider community that is permeable and accessible in every sense and generates an environment of inclusion and participation. Businesses of all sizes can capitalise and grow from two primary college outcomes: talent and innovation. Vocational colleges are the institutions that help businesses recruit and develop the skills and talent potential to enable and unlock innovation and success. Through colleges, businesses will find graduates, apprentices and a diverse range of vocational skills. This crossover is often reflected in business incubation units within colleges, generating a win-win interface between student and employer.

community and identity

Good education = good business

Diversity RMJM recognises that vocational college education is diverse and to deliver this experience requires an exciting spectrum of innovative space types and technologies. We also understand that the widespread use of personal technologies, on and off campus, requires new types of space to facilitate collaborative and social learning. The growth in the power and availability of technology has had a considerable impact on college design. With increasing reference to the social origin of learning, many colleges are now developing highly flexible large scale learning resource centres, or multipurpose laboratories. These open spaces support both private and group project work by clustering and zoning, as well as incorporating staff and community activities. They are technology-rich, primarily offering access to digital resources owned by the college, but increasingly make flexible provision for learners’ personal devices.

They are a key component to the design of a new college and as a rapidly developing space typology offer great opportunity to make learning visually stimulating through space that is ‘constantly in the process of being made’. The synergy between colleges and industry can be the backbone of an economy – be it manufacturing, service, or creative. The combination and variety of these spaces, or ‘real working environments’, is primarily demand-led by local industry and economy, although increasingly colleges are broadening their band-width to take on a more national and even international perspective. RMJM has invested a great deal of time in researching the design of bespoke, industry standard, vocational learning spaces. The design of these specialist spaces is challenging; not only must they recreate industry standards, but they must also act as a classroom. Often they are also the community interface and open to the public.

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Changing space

The spectrum of space needed for vocational learning is continuously changing. RMJM’s education studios are pioneering what the next space will look like - and what we see is exciting and transformational.

The World Wide Web has made it easier for creativity to thrive. Blogs, community journalism, Wikipedia and MySpace provide a global stage on which to perform. Over 100 million videos are streamed from YouTube every day. The world GDP relating to creative and cultural activity is growing at 10% a year. Colleges need to be a part of this revolution and recognise that ‘creativity thrives on not knowing’. Creative learning needs to take place outside the classroom - the very nature of creative activity means it will often move faster than classifications, or ways of counting it. Creative people and organisations don’t stay still - and break the rules - that’s how they innovate. We understand this and design spaces that can respond and react to unpredictable fluctuations in demand style and use.

The explosion in demand for a skilled workforce in the sport, tourism and lifestyle industries continues, with demand consistently outstripping supply. With globalisation and a new paradigm in mobility and expectation, the standards and facilities we now expect in our recreation time have increased dramatically - and colleges need to respond to this. The recognised shortage of a skilled workforce driving the construction sector is costing the global economy billions of dollars. The skill gap to deliver innovation has become critical. Colleges have a vital role to reverse this trend and rediscover the inherent value in realising the solutions, as well as discovering the solutions. As well as understanding the collaborative and transparent role of staff space within a college design, RMJM recognises the less definable, but deeply important role of social space and the value of social learning. Beyond the classroom, the spaces in between, or ‘third spaces’, offer informal interaction without agenda or framework. From our experience it is frequently from chance encounters in these interstitial spaces that great conversations and innovation start.

creativity thrives on not knowing

Performance Academy, Circulation 17

That’s what Ofsted, the education watchdog said about Newcastle College in its 07-08 report. It’s report ranked it the best college in the north east and gave it Beacon status; one of 19 in the UK. Newcastle College has transformed its brand and presence in the north east, enhanced its role within the city and made its presence felt internationally. The college has made a significant contribution to Newcastle’s reputation as a city that has successfully reinvented itself and is continuing to do so. How did it do that? Why is Newcastle College so popular with the 30,000 young people who go there each year seeking new skills and a better life? Is there a connection between the college’s popularity and its academic achievements, and the confidence with which it has invested in major new facilities? It is an investment which has reflected the dynamic contemporary culture of Newcastle. Young people have responded positively in their tens of thousands to embark on new economic and cultural enterprises.

OFFICIALLY OUTSTANDING

The success of RMJM’s partnership with the college since 2002 in helping create major new facilities suggests good architecture makes a significant contribution to academic success, which in turn has made a great contribution to a great city.

Lifestyle Academy, Main Entrance 19

Sandyford Campus

Campus map

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1 Performance Academy 9000m2 2002 - 2004 2 Space 500m2 2003 - 2005 3 Rye Hill House 3,000m2 2003 - 2006 4 Lifestyle Academy 7,000m2 2003-2006 5 6th Form College 13,000m2 2008 - 2011

“I have worked with RMJM for over seven years now and am always surprised at their ability to translate our diverse educational space requirements into spectacular and creative design solutions - and then deliver them. I push for the extra mile and they always respond, we agree and disagree always professionally and positively – I value the relationship massively” Jeff McCall Director of Development Newcastle college

Jeff McCall, the college’s director of development, is a southerner who has chosen to live up north and he has an interesting mix of skills. Having worked in the building industry and as a facilities manager, he also studied art and design. 22

The design team meetings turned into day long workshops where everybody contributed. Afterwards we would have dinner and wine together. Socialising with the project team, client and contractor was curiously a key part of the process.

A shared ambition The college needed to consolidate and transform what it had to offer and invested in a series of major new and refurbished buildings, with more to come.

In 2002, for the first time in the best part of four decades, Newcastle College found itself with government funding available to invest in new facilities. This was desperately needed to rationalise and update its aging and disparate campus. It grasped firmly the opportunity to determine its own future, free from local authority management, and set off on an amazing journey. “The college was divided into schools, spread over three sites in totally inappropriate buildings,” recalls director of development Jeff McCall. “The first thing we wanted to tackle was our music and performing arts school which was housed in an old department store in the city centre. What we wanted was a single new purpose-built building.”

The college started the procedure to appoint an architect, with the challenging objective of getting its new building completed by September 2004. RMJM was appointed in December 2002 with 23 months to design and deliver a complex and substantial building. “This was an onerous programme for this building type”, says RMJM principal Adrian Boot, who led the team of architects working with the college to design and deliver its new buildings.

“For me the architecture was driven by the typology of the building. We thought the first building needed to be a big, robust workshop for people to experiment in, so they could be robust about how they behaved, learning to be performers. We also wanted it to be a sensible pragmatic building, not one made of wilful shapes.” There was a lot of focus on buildability because of the tight timescale, and also a need to capture in the design the building’s robust functions, something which is also evident in the other campus buildings designed by RMJM. “We wanted to allow our students to interact rather than be in silos of learning spread round the city, and we wanted a contemporary, modern flavour, which was already evident in the existing 1960s campus buildings,” says Jeff McCall. “And we wanted a building that would set a theme or trend for development elsewhere on the campus. This kicked off our property strategy and halfway through it we decided to get on with the next building.” “Our view is we’re part of the community and a key output of the state is education. It is the best route for social regeneration. We are about giving people second, third or even fourth chances in life. We’re vocationally focused and we train people to do things. And when times are recessionary there is even more demand for what we provide. It’s been a very exciting time and it’s going to be an even more exciting time, I would like to build a new building every year!” The college’s bold vision enabled RMJM to work creatively with a demanding budget that helped drive innovation to find robust and buildable solutions which delivered pragmatic results. Trust developed quickly because solutions had to be found on an open-book basis, which in turn helped foster a mutual commitment from all of the teams involved. It was quite a journey for everyone.

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A Fine Performance

Fame may be fickle and elusive, but there are an enormous range of opportunities in our burgeoning cultural industries. The Performance Academy prepares people to make the most of these.

The Performance Academy is the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest education facility to house music, performing arts and media under one roof. It was the first building to relocate a series of satellite schools to the Rye Hill Campus, creating a new focus for educational excellence. Like the later Lifestyle Academy, it offers its facilities to both students and the local community in the Scotswood area of the city, lending its presence an additional social and culturally engaging regenerative effect. The full spectrum of creative activities is catered for in the Academy. It includes a 250-seat mainhouse theatre, studio theatre, a 200-person music venue, TV studio, radio station, dance studios, acting studios, IT suites, recording studios, music rehearsal studios, production facilities, editing suites, seminar rooms, lecture theatres, staff and meeting rooms, plus the obligatory bar and social meeting areas. Its form is monolithic, but a transparent backlit main facade is a highly contemporary and theatrical unifying device hinting at the dramatic activities inside. Under this floating screen the ground falls away to the south allowing the main entrance to open up underneath it and pull in the landscape under its elevation, linking the building to the heart of the campus.

On the southern elevation a giant projection screen projects from the building, onto which performances can be projected and viewed from afar. A public sign of the students activities within the building.

Behind the dramatically illuminated main elevation â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not unlike a giant silver screen â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is a large box-like structure, containing staff, admin and meeting rooms. Occasional oblong windows on the side and rear elevations allow occupants selective views for moments of contemplation before returning to the intensity of the task in hand. Other studio functions demand no external light at all. Centralised within the monolithic form are three full-height performance spaces, wrapped around by circulation space, then acoustically insulated by all the other functions located around the perimeter of the plan. The main entrance space features a bar and large contemporary interpretation of the traditional refectory table, with an atrium space to its rear rising up three stories and dropping light down into this unifying social space. Again dramatic colour and a minimal tough materiality reflect the robust and dynamic character of the activities within the Academy.

Polycarbonate, Graphic Projection Screen 29

Newcastle College HE Contemporary Dance presents

fragility Thursday 5th June 7pm Friday 6th June 1.30pm and 7pm Saturday 7th June 7pm Peter Sarah Theatre Performance Academy Newcastle College Tickets ÂŁ5/ÂŁ3

We decided that rather than have scattered tables in the foyer we would have one giant table. Its been incredibly successful in bringing together actors, musicians and a range of creative disciplines. They also use it as an impromptu catwalk. Image: Front of House Main Foyer.

Sting opens the Performance Academy September 2004

‘Architecturally, the scheme is fresh and has a strong identity without resorting to attention-seeking forms. The use of colour and light with simple and industrial materials – coloured profiled metal sheeting, polycarbonate, steel and concrete – creates a sense of a considered, well-proportioned and efficient building.’ RIBA Judges comments

The all singing, all dancing school, will build the talent and skills of the entertainment, media, and cultural industries, which are critical to the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aspirations for a new cultural economy.

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festlyle cademy Glamorous and Functional

We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t particularly think about winning awards - there was no time, but to win two RIBA awards was pretty stunning. Image: Primary Circulation Route Opposite: Main Foyer, for students staff and public 42

When diners gaze across the city from the top-floor restaurant, they could easily believe they are in a four-star hotel rather than a further education college.

The Gym, open to the Public, has panaramic views across the Tyne Valley. 46

Newcastle College’s striking Lifestyle Academy gives people the skills to provide the human comforts and leisure activities our society enjoys and values so highly – sport and fitness, hair and beauty treatments, food and hospitality, travel and tourism. The building that houses the Academy is a landmark on campus and also within central Newcastle. It signals its social function as both a destination within the cityscape and as a centre of excellence for the skills it teaches, expressing the aspirational nature of these in its form, materials and the disposition of functions within the building.

It dominates the southern part of the campus with its solid and mysterious rectangular bulk. An austere, chic black skin is punctured by window openings whose irregular levels, shapes and sizes disguise internal functions, lending the block a contemporary, monolithic and sculptural quality. A dramatic entrance ramp generates the sense of arrival essential for a major international hotel or leisure venue, which the form and materiality of the building suggest. The public parts of the building are expressed in a cantilevered silver box, perched atop the black box of the main mass, with cutaway glazed elevations signalling a glamorous rooftop restaurant where Newcastle residents and visitors can sample students’ culinary and hospitality skills. The building also houses lecture theatres, study areas, IT suites, admin and staff rooms, stores and changing areas, while specialist training areas in the silver box cater for each discipline, including a hair salon, beauty salons, wet

treatment spa area, restaurant, bistro and bar, gym and fitness studio – all designed following benchmarking visits to exemplary facilities in the marketplace, complemented by specialist consultant input. The Lifestyle Academy offers students learning on the job in real working environments, while Newcastle’s lucky residents get a serendipitous bargain. The restaurant and bistro offer excellent cuisine at really good value prices, with a panoramic view over the Tyne Valley thrown in. While the building itself is a symbol of change not just in this part of the city, but for the city, and especially its young people, as a whole. It generates and transmits a powerful and positive sense of renewal and ambition. And while the building is functional, even industrial in appearance and use of materials, it achieves a tangible sense of delight and surprise – which is what you want to feel when you pay for the skills taught within it. Its design appropriately inspires its users in their work, and signals this functionality to the whole of Newcastle, inviting the rest of the city to partake.

All facilities are industry standard allowing the students to provide a high level of professional service to members of the public who visit the lifestyle academy from Ă la carte dining to manicures and spa treatments.

The Lifestyle Academy is now a recognised Landmark in the North East of England

CASE STUDY | Lifestyle Academy

Public Foyer on arival to ‘The Retreat’

The building is not only for teaching but is also in part a commercial venture which has to advertise its presence to encourage its clientele. One of the main strategic moves was to place areas such as the gym, spa, beauty salons and cafeteria on the roof, so as to be visible across the City and to enjoy the views over the Tyne. 54

Rye Hill House A new gateway

A building with a dynamic mix of old and new, forms a welcoming new ‘threshold’ to the Newcastle College campus. Enrolment, fees, finance, accommodation – all the things students need to know about are located in Rye Hill House which is the college’s administrative and student services hub at the northern entrance to the campus, half a mile west from the city centre on Westmorland Road.

The building incorporates the Grade II-listed Rye Hill House – one of the few remaining villas in the area dating from the 1840s – which has been partially wrapped with major new build elements to the side and the rear. Internally the old and the new are divided by triple height foyers which allow light to flood into the heart of the building. The reception foyer, staff restaurant and boardroom are stacked alongside the entrance, while towards the rear of the building efficient new flexible and open-plan administrative offices are arranged over four floors, with panoramic views south to the city centre. More cellular space and smaller meeting rooms are located in the refurbished historic building. In urban regeneration terms, the original Victorian villa was an important building for Newcastle. Its retention and dynamic relationship with the new elements added to it, have helped to transform the formerly rundown Westmorland Road.

CASE STUDY

Arrival space at Student Services 59

The arrival atrium lets light deep into the biulding plan

Atrium seperating new and old 63

Themes Ideas Process 64

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ideas Togetherness no boundaries Energy Robust Beautiful regenerate Drama contrast Landscape Performance Skin Day Night 24hr Music Performing arts Media Plastic Activated Metal Steel Mesh Brick Concrete Fabric Simplicity Rhythm Space

Lifestyle Academy sketch ideas

Designing the foyer furniture wasn’t part of our commission - but we did it anyway - we had to! We were keen for the idea of a new college ‘brand’ to be reflected in everything from the architecture to the stationery, to the table mats.

The windows may appear to be randomly disposed but have been carefully arranged to give particular views from the spaces within.

Our engineer suggested we use bridge building technology to create the vast span over the foyer - so we did - we actually used the same people who built the millennium bridge in Newcastle.

The contractor would spend days in our studio - their willingness to be part of the team and to contribute to solutions was outstanding.

Performance Academy sketches showing the organisation of the spaces in red. From top left acoustic buffering, light box, acosutic sensitive, in-between space, front of house.

Feature Walls

Stage Door

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Entrance

Circulation

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Acting Centre

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Wet Props

Colour coding to define spaces within the Performance Academy

We have proven that good design = good business for the college

Early 6th Form Academy model

We used diverse mediums to explore design ideas with the college — drawings, models, traveling and seeing — but probably the most effective was conversation — lots of it. 82

We tried to share solutions — us to arrange the spaces and materiality — the college to be able to teach, change and grow in the spaces — and the contractor to be able to build them.

Early Performance Academy model 85

Space A Social Hub

An unusual 1960s concert hall sat at the heart of Newcastle College’s campus. Its quirky, iconic form has been transformed into a series of spaces and volumes to create a social heart that provides all the facilities synonymous with student life. Basically it has been transformed into a bar and student union and pound-for-pound its modest refurbishment and upgrade has provided great value in terms of architecture and student use. Upstairs a cafe-bar, large multi-use social area with raked seating for 300, large screen TVs and a DJ’s gallery combine into one large volume, perfect for socialising.

Additionally at this level, a new ‘pod’ has been inserted into the southern side of the building, cantilevering out over a new entrance steps and ramp. This dramatic device welcomes students to their social facilities in a thoroughly contemporary fashion, reflecting the spirit of the college’s combination of dramatic and lifestyle interests. The entire southern elevation of this raised rectangular pod is glazed. It peers out towards the river Tyne to the south and lets light flood into the main space while providing a more relaxed internal ‘lounge’ type seating area, separate from, but opening off the main social space.

On the ground floor a curving IT bar provides communal internet facilities and a drop-in advice and interview area, with space for student displays and informal meetings. Again the materiality and form of the building are robust and minimal, with a very clear internal layout, just three key spaces distinguished by colour, light and materials. The overall effect is very sculptural and visually accessible, while by night the glazed openings render its activity and content even more visible to the rest of the campus – a welcoming social hub. In good weather, the adjacent external areas can be used as additional social spaces, reinforcing the central function of SPACE as the social hub and heart of the campus, stitching it together.

Inside the ‘Pod’ 89

Robust reinvention of the concert hall space

Sixth Fo College 92

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A new Learning Landmark

The latest addition to Newcastle College’s campus will be a sixth form college that will re-examine the traditional facilities for this level of education.

The college will provide 12,000m² of innovative learning spaces serving 2,000 students and faculty members. At its heart will be the ‘hive’; a multi-storey social learning hub that will offer dynamic facilities for learning outside of the traditional classroom. It will offer a mix of highly specialised spaces including performance studios, visual arts suites, sports facilities and fully-wired general teaching spaces at a variety of scales. The aim is to provide students with an innovative range of teaching and learning spaces that place more emphasis on individual and collective engagement with the subject in a stimulating environment. The new college building will strengthen existing pedestrian connections with the rest of the campus by generating new public spaces to be enjoyed around the building, while asserting itself in the campus and the cityscape as a new and dynamic landmark – making the most of its prominent position at the elevated north east corner of the campus fronting onto Westmorland Road and adjacent to Rye Hill House.

The four storey building sits on a sloping site and height is limited to ensure a scale appropriate to the surrounding townscape. To preserve this scale, the proposed double-height sports facility will be created underground. Visually it develops some of the architectural motifs used in the other new campus buildings, but its angular, punctured form incorporates elements which reflect its dominant position in relation to the surrounding city - notably the asymmetric copper-clad peak capping the north east corner of the building. Cladding on the lower elevation here is lifted and replaced by a glazed curtain wall, revealing to the street the restaurant within and showing the life of the college to passers-by.

Early model and visualisations

Programme Model

Interior model of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Hiveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

The building organisation is hyper-rational, with a fluid foyer space that conncts from the campus to the building to the city. 99

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City facing elevation 101

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The ‘Hive’

Campus facing eleavation 103

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.â&#x20AC;? Isaac Newton

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. 106

Henry Ford

Working together is success.â&#x20AC;?

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Vocational Learning Newcastle College RMJM Collaboration www.rmjm.com

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