WilkinsonEyre has been selected to design a new college campus on the Olympic Way in Wembley, London, to serve as the new educational facility for the College of North West London. The project is designed to cater to over 300 students per week in addition to the 250 staff members. The new facility will offer classes in engineering, the built environment, and green skills, as well as digital technology, computing, health, and social care. The new campus scheme has recently been granted planning permission at the Council’s Planning Committee meeting and has now been passed to the Greater London Authority for final approval.
The new 8-storey building, located on a prominent site on the main route leading to Wembley Stadium, will serve the residential population of the Quintain masterplan development. The architectural concept organizes the different college activities in a series of easily identifiable horizontal layers. Workshops dedicated to heavy-duty construction engineering are located at the base of the building, while higher floors are dedicated to student services, such as a cafeteria, TV studios, and a large outdoor deck with views towards the Wembley Arch. A linear atrium at the center of the building creates connections between the various functions.
The five floors above the student services area are dedicated to classrooms and social study spaces arranged in a flexible manner to allow for reconfiguration and adaptation to the changing needs of the students. All these spaces are naturally ventilated with decentralized mechanical ventilation and heat recovery systems.
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Ennead Architects Proposes a Unified Campus Master Plan for the American School in JapanThe educational facility caters to all students. An integrated Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties unit creates spaces for students facing difficulties, while a Learning Resource Center improves access to a wide range of materials and support systems. They ensure ease of accessibility for the vertical circulation nodes, computer modeling has been used to predict student movement throughout the day and to design lifts, elevators, and open stairs accordingly. WilkinsonEyre worked with Max Fordham and Eckersley O’Callaghan engineers to reduce the associated carbon emissions required by the London Plan 2021 and BREEAM version 6.
Recently, WilkinsonEyre has inaugurated the long-anticipated Battersea Power Station in London. The restoration project revives Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s masterpiece while maintaining its distinctive image, complete with chimneys and turbine halls. The internationally-recognized office has also designed a Tropical Biodome in the Reykjavik region of Iceland to showcase exotic plants from around the world and provide an educational environment for local food production.
