Centre for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT)
The transformation of an under-used wing of the Victorian Skinner Building to create a contemporary flexible learning facility.
Client
Bishop Grosseteste University
Value
£350k
Services
Architectural
Working with a historical building such as the Victorian Skinner building provided a great opportunity to restore and sensitively enhance the spaces and external appearance of the original building.
Opening up the four original spaces allowed for the creation of flexible, contemporary open-plan space to meet the present needs of the CELT team, whilst maintaining the character of the building. Flexibility was a crucial factor in the design to ensure that the space can be adapted to meet future needs.
Copper cladding and feature lighting was used to highlight important features such as the entrance which is surrounded in illuminated copper work, the reception desk and meeting rooms.
A new entrance was created linking to the adjacent courtyard space, which is a busy thoroughfare and focal point for a number of circulation routes through the campus. This created new visual and physical links and made the CELT area more inclusive.
The design allowed significant structural alterations and major upgrading of the thermal performance of the building fabric to be carried out.