Broadwater Road Campus Masterplan

ECE Architecture

Transforming one of the UK’s most challenged further education campuses through a comprehensive three-phase masterplan, creating vibrant modern learning environments.

Our masterplan revolutionised Northbrook College’s Broadwater Road campus, replacing a sea of outdated mobile classrooms with integrated, purpose-built facilities. This comprehensive regeneration approach retained existing quality buildings whilst creating flexible, future-focused spaces that respond to evolving educational needs.

Working across all RIBA stages, we navigated the complex challenge of maintaining full college operations throughout construction whilst creating flexible, future-focused spaces. As part of the wider masterplan vision, we also designed Bohunt School, a new secondary school on an adjacent site within the development.

Phase 1: Improving campus presence

Phase 1 marked a bold statement of intent, sweeping away the tired 1920s timber hut buildings to reveal a striking 3-storey beacon of educational excellence. Housing specialist hair and beauty salons alongside a welcoming new college entrance, this phase did more than create space – it created momentum and hope for one of the poorest campuses in the UK’s further education estate.

The building itself includes a living classroom, with sustainable design principles embedded as teaching tools. Through extensive consultation and research, we crafted layouts that didn’t just meet requirements but ignited passion, creating modern, stimulating environments that immediately enthused both staff and students whilst dramatically transforming the campus’s street presence and community perception.

Phase 2: Building the heart of campus life

The second phase elevated ambition further, establishing the campus’s beating heart through an innovative internal “street” crowned by a soaring double-height refectory. This wasn’t simply about adding square footage – we were choreographing daily life, transforming the refectory from a mere dining destination into the vibrant social nucleus of campus community.

Our technical expertise shone through the concrete frame construction, providing essential thermal mass, whilst steel frame elements enabled the column-free refectory space. The 2-storey addition seamlessly wove together general teaching classrooms, exam suites, and specialist LLDD facilities with new staff accommodation and thoughtfully landscaped courtyards, expertly integrating an existing 1980s building with Phase 1 into one cohesive campus narrative.

Phase 3: Completing the transformation

Phase 3 brought the transformation full circle, breathing new life into the existing construction trades and engineering workshops. Rather than wholesale demolition, we demonstrated how thoughtful intervention could elevate tired facilities to exceed current industry standards.

A carefully considered extension introduced new teaching classrooms, mechanical workshops, and cutting-edge CAD/CAM facilities, whilst western red cedar cladding and blue engineering brickwork maintained the aesthetic thread binding the entire masterplan together.

This transformative project elevated the educational environments, creating lasting value through expert technical delivery and thoughtful phasing.

The completed campus enabled strategic land disposal whilst standing as a beacon of regeneration, profoundly impacting both the college community and local area.