London South Bank Technical College – Nine Elms STEAM Centre

Since the summer of 2017 Peter Marsh Consulting Ltd (PMc) has been working with Lambeth College to develop an education-led redevelopment of their existing site at Nine Elms. A ‘Skills for Growth’ funding bid was submitted to the London Education Action Partnership (LEAP) in April 2018 which set out the detailed business case for the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths (STEAM) Centre that forms the first phase of the redevelopment of the site.

We worked with the design team led by APLB to deliver a RIBA Stage 2 report, which formed part of the successful bid for £22.5m funding which we wrote to support the construction of the £45m new STEAM Centre on the College’s Nine Elms Campus. In the summer of 2019, following a competitive tender process via the Bloom Framework we were appointed as Project Managers from stage 3b onwards. The design of the building progressed, following extensive engagement with stakeholders to ensure that the end result is a transformational learning environment, which inspires learners, responds to employers’ skills needs, meets staff’s requirements and is adaptable to the curricula of the future. The funding bid was successful and the final funding agreement for the project was signed in September 2019.

Taking the space planning brief, we produced as a point of reference, options were explored to reach an optimum depth and primary structural grid to most efficiently provide the room sizes defined by the brief, whilst enabling flexibility and adaptability both internally and in conjunction with glazing and facade solutions.

By establishing a building grid into which standard room sizes fit, internal partition walls could then be located at any point along the length of the plan, flexibility was designed in. Also, a straightforward and efficient layout with a central corridor provides for easy navigation and simple circulation routes. Rather than create a single large atrium that is passed through at the start and end of the day, the building includes as series of larger double-height ‘Digital Spine’ spaces at the prominent South-East corner of the building which provide a range of cross-college facilities and create a series of shop-windows looking up to the busier Wandsworth Road.

A core requirement of the brief is to ensure flexibility is designed into the STEAM building, so that it is inclusive, future proofed and sustainable.  The scheme was submitted or planning approval in July 2019 in detailed form with the wider site-wide master plan of a further 28,000 m² submitted in outline form.