Midlands & East Anglia Premier Construction

The art of extending Derby College

Joseph Wright Centre, Derby College
Written by Roma Publications

Joseph Wright Centre, Derby College

Derby College offers apprenticeships, A Levels, vocational courses, part-time education and adult and higher education courses across Derby and Derbyshire.

The college equips students with the skills and knowledge required for work or further study and offers an extensive range of courses to suit an array of needs.

At present, Derby College is implementing a programme of works designed to extend the college’s existing Joseph Wright Centre. Once complete, the centre will boast an additional 1200 square meters of space and will consolidate the college’s existing art & design provisions into one location.

The project further enhances the centre’s ability to expand and develop and follows on from a previous extension which was completed in 2007. Speaking to Premier Construction about the new extension project, Derby College Corporate Director, Nigel Gell, said:

“The Joseph Wright Centre was the first building we constructed after we undertook a three-way merger back in 2002. The centre was constructed in 2005, is located in the centre of Derby and houses all our A Level students as well as a wide range of other creative arts vocational courses.

“Due to the building’s initial success we built an extension in 2007; however as part of our on-going property strategy we decided to merge our existing A-Level art facilities with our vocational art & design courses and this has resulted in our requirement for a further extension of the centre.”

Joseph Wright Centre, Derby College

Nigel added:

“As part of this project, we’re consolidating some of our provisions, taking them from our Roundhouse site and relocating them to the Joseph Wright Centre. By putting them in one place it will make our services more efficient and it will mean that students and staff will not need to travel from one site to the other.”

The Joseph Wright Centre was originally built by British construction specialist Bowmer & Kirkland, one of the largest and most successful privately owned construction, engineering and development groups in the UK. The contractor has now returned to construct this latest extension – albeit a different division of Bowmer & Kirkland.

Nigel said:

“Work continues to make good progress and remains on programme as planned. Our aim is to open after Christmas 2014, so we shall be moving equipment to the new extension in December ready for January 2015.”

Nigel added:

“We are pleased to be implementing this extension. With all our Art & Design provision in one place, students will find that the course is even more accessible and it will also give us much more of a presence within the surrounding cultural community.”

Joseph Wright Centre, Derby College

Derby College is committed to providing the best learning facilities possible, by transforming students’ learning experience, revolutionising the offer, contributing to economic growth and social prosperity, and investing in the college’s own learning environment by improving financial performance.

Premier Construction caught up with Stefan Helm, of Innovaré Systems Limited, to find out more about the firm’s role in the project. Working mainly in the education, residential and healthcare sectors, the company delivers a full solution in the design, manufacture, engineering, and installation of Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), which benefit by building energy efficiency right into the fabric of the building.

During this project Innovaré Systems undertook the design, manufacture and installation of the exterior cladding of the building, each panel spanning floor to ceiling height, providing a high performance thermal building envelope for the Joseph Wright Centre.

Stefan commented:

“We were able to maximise the energy efficiency of the steel-framed building with our highly insulated i-SIP cladding system. This eliminated any thermal bridging caused by the steel beams, meeting the client’s tough design requirements. We collaborate closely with the architect and contractor so the thermal performance can be designed to achieve the lowest u-values, bespoke to the most unique of client design requirements.

Joseph Wright Centre, Derby College

“As an off-site solution we could improve the overall speed of build compared to other cladding alternatives. We can minimise waste and materials required on-site, freeing up site resources for other trades to work alongside with minimal disruption. This means we could save the client the time and costs of being on-site.”

For more information about Derby College or the courses that the college has to offer, please visit: www.derby-college.ac.uk.

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Roma Publications