University of the West of England, Bristol

Engineering the future

A striking new development right in the heart of campus, the project has delivered a highly sustainable flexible learning environment for our students, promoting multi-disciplinary, collaborative learning.

The eye-catching new BREEAM Excellent rated building was delivered in parallel with a renewal of the university’s engineering curriculum, drawn up in collaboration with industry to ensure engineering graduates are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to tackle the challenges of the coming decades. With this new facility we are aiming to produce more ‘non-standard’ engineers in the coming years and decades.

Engineers will need to think differently and be far more creative and innovative over the next decade, particularly with some of the challenges we face in areas such as the climate and ecological crisis. 

Top 3 Learnings

1. We learned to allow a good length of time to design and procure the specialist work packages that a building such as this requires.
2. We will learn going forward to appointment contractor earlier in the process, to develop and work through the early design stages – this has many benefits once in the construction phase.
3. We worked openly and collaboratively with the whole project team to help deliver a successful project.