One of two hubs which will provide world-class training facilities designed to fire the growth of the UK’s nuclear industry.
This project is the result of a partnership between the Department for Business, Industry and Skills (BIS) and nuclear employees such as EDF Energy and Sellafield Ltd. The college is one of five national colleges designed to create the ‘workforce of tomorrow’ in strategic industries including high-speed rail and digital.
The National College for Nuclear offers hi-tech specialist training to meet the skills needed by the nuclear industry. The two storey building comprises two interlocking blocks which creates a distinctive sculptural architectural form. At the heart of the building are large flexible teaching and learning spaces, a reactor simulator and virtual reality engineering learning facilities. Laboratories over two floors are linked by a feature staircase.
The design aimed to create a distinctive, high-quality addition to the existing campus that reflected the national status of the new facility. Corridors are minimised and learning activities are showcased through extensive use of internal and external glazing. Natural daylight and ventilation, and low or zero carbon renewables technologies have been incorporated. This will allow a 10% target reduction in operation CO2 emissions to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’.
Externally a landscaped arrival plaza and pedestrian link have been created between the new centre and existing buildings. We collaborated with the National College for Nuclear to agree on a 51-week programme which saw the college open in October 2017.
