The new Ribblehead building provides modern purpose built accommodation for the college’s construction facility. Integrated onto the main Aireville Campus the industrial design aesthetic provides it with its own identity within the cluster of surrounding buildings. Engaging with the building end users we defined and developed the brief requirements, ensuring that room utilisation for the facility was maximised.
Existing site constraints (such as embankments down either long side and the retention where possible of existing mature trees at the western end) helped dictate the plateau area suitable for the footprint of the new building.
Due to the nature of the building’s functional requirements, the accommodation mainly comprises of large workshops with associated storage, with a raft of ancillary accommodation. Given the nature of the site the accommodation was arranged linearly with the main circulation down one side feeding off into each room.
The mass of the building was split into two distinct elements; the monolithic form of the workshop wing and a lighter glazed element nestled protectively into the hillside where it is sheltered from prevailing winds and direct sunlight but connected to the inside of the building with the external landscape.
The principle of using environmentally sustainable materials informed the specification
The principle of using energy efficient equipment and environmentally sustainable materials which are durable, low maintenance and have low life cycle costs informed the specification of materials, equipment, furniture and finishes.
