Backed by over £2m from the Government Towns Fund, the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE) is building a new Future of Work Skills Hub in Hereford.
And appropriately, given that the Institute also incorporates the Centre for Advanced Timber Technology (CATT, see also p67), the new building has wood at its core.
The Skills Hub on NMITE’s Blackfriars campus in Hereford, is built around three core themes: innovation, entrepreneurship, and future skills development. Its goal is to help “prepare local businesses and individuals for the future of work, whether that is upskilling, reskilling or developing entrepreneurial and innovative skills”.
“Our role is to encourage, inspire and support local businesses and residents to take ownership of their future,” said Skills Hub development lead at NMITE, Lahari Parchuri. “Advancement in technologies such as artificial intelligence and immersive realities are fundamentally changing the world of work. We have an opportunity in Herefordshire to work together and decide what that means for our people.”
Naturally, as home to the CATT and provider of BE-ST Green Skills 2023 award winning courses for the sustainable built environment, environmental impact was a core consideration of designers Arbor Architects.
The building, says the latter, will be single storey, and by learning from the surrounding built form, will present a series of interconnected gables fronting the street. “Datum lines from the original Edwardian building will be picked up and reflected in the cladding of the extension and the three bay fenestration patterns,” said Arbor. “The extension will also connect into a series of renovated spaces on the ground floor of the Edwardian structure.”
“The Blackfriars Campus is a prominent city centre site and in a conservation area,” said NMITE director of strategic projects and change, Anthea Parker. “Herefordshire Council conservation officers were consulted about the design and following their advice the roof material was changed from standing seam zinc to slate to match more closely that of the original building. The balance was to enhance the historical context of the existing environment, whilst also creating a distinctive and eye-catching building.”
While melding with its historic neighbour, the Hub’s appearance will belie very modern bones.
“It’s an open plan, glulam frame structure with timber I-joist stud walls around its perimeter,” said Ms Parker. “We wanted to use renewable materials such as timber, which minimise the embodied carbon emissions and for the building to be designed to very high standards of energy efficiency and airtightness.”
Arbor Architects, she added, work with a fabric first approach.
“Their focus is to reduce a building’s energy demand and this has been applied to the Skills Hub design,” she said. “Electric heating will be via heat pumps providing efficiency and contributing to the decarbonisation of the electricity grid. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery will also reduce heating demands. There is also a preference for modern off site construction methods for efficiency and sustainability performance.”
Due to NMITE’s work with timber engineering, it also wanted the hub, like the CATT building on its Skylon Campus, to be a “showcase of modern use of timber in construction”.
“Inside the Skills Hub the timber frame and roof structure will be exposed, creating a feature ceiling,” said Ms Parker. “The gabled roof creates an inspirational space internally that will reveal and celebrate the impressive glulam timber structure.”
The team at CATT is also involved.
“We are working with them to capture the project journey in a way that can be used as a learning tool for our timber engineering students and exploring other areas for collaboration, such as measuring building performance and the use of UK-sourced timber,” said Ms Parker. “That includes measuring the carbon stored in the timber.”
Construction of the 190m2 building is set to start this year and take nine to 10 months.
The finished project, said Ms Parker, will be fit for purpose and future proofed.
“The design combines the flexibility of space, a clear approach to minimising the environmental footprint whilst also enhancing the historical context of the site,” she said. “It should be a beacon of sympathetic modern construction.”
The health and well-being of Skills Hub users is also a core consideration.
“The designed scheme includes a sheltered central courtyard and a new woodland glade on the corner of the site providing further opportunities to connect with nature,” said Ms Parker.
