Top college of art goes for modular design

Plymouth College of Art and Design new two-storey 'Central Building' is a factory manufactured, modular building, designed and built by Wernick Buildings.

Plymouth College of Art and Design has gained a jealously guarded international reputation for the excellence of its courses.

With 1500 students enrolled in the 2007-2008 academic year and that number expected to increase next year the college, like its reputation, is growing rapidly.

The student body has more than doubled in the last six years.

To cope with this annual year on year growth an extension and rebuild followed a GBP5.2m revamp in 2002 and a new building - the Central Building - was opened last autumn.

Flanked by an attractive pergola covered terraced concourse the new 518 square metre, two-storey 'Central Building' is in fact a factory manufactured, modular building, designed and built by Neath Abbey based Wernick Buildings and project managed by Andrew Gilbert of Ward Williams Associates, Plymouth.

Positioned on a steeply sloping piece of land the first floor, which is level with the concourse on one side, contains administrative offices.

A large ground floor room houses the 3-D Department and the occasional exhibition of students' work.

Why did the college go for a steel framed modular building, rather than traditional build? Firstly there is the cost factor.

A 'design and build' modular contract will generally be far more cost effective than a traditional build design.

Secondly, there is the time factor.

The 16 modules that comprise the new building were delivered on two consecutive Saturdays, with finishing work taking just 16 weeks.

The site was actually handed-over to the client one week early.

A similar traditionally built structure would take in the region of 36 weeks to complete.

A greatly reduced on-site time scale is particularly important in a densely populated area, particularly at a school or college campus.

The ability to schedule the delivery of a modular building to coincide with holidays or weekends is often a critical factor for senior staff at educational establishments.

With modular build most of the construction is done at the factory so the amount of heavy plant on a client's site is dramatically reduced, thus minimizing environmental impact on the area and reducing health and safety risks.

These would have certainly been important factors for the senior staff at the college and Ward Williams.

The site for the new building is steeply sloping and 30 cubic metres of soil had to be removed and two retaining walls built.

This work was scheduled for July when only administrative staff and summer schools would be in the college.

How did Andrew Gilbert, a director of Ward Williams, feel the Plymouth College of Art and Design project had gone? "This project met all our client's criteria and ours".

"It was a rapid, cost-effective build programme in a restricted time frame in a city centre location".

"The project went well".

"This is not the first time we have worked with Wernick Buildings on this type of contract and I am sure it won't be the last." Request a free copy of Wernick Buildings' Educational Buildings Guide.

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