The £4m project will see part of Birmingham Metropolitan College’s Erdington campus redeveloped to create a new state-of-the-art facility. The existing mix of Edwardian and 1950’s buildings, which used to be the former Erdington Technical School, will be replaced with purpose built facilities comprising of classrooms and workshops. The facilities have been specifically designed to accommodate a range of provision including construction trades, as well as training rooms with enhanced teaching technology.
With the opportunity to redevelop the site a conscious decision was taken to align the scheme to the residential scale on the frontage by breaking the massing down into a series of gables which picks up on the rhythms of the terrace houses. The building balances the residential typology with the typology of the High Street by providing a glazed facade at ground level to provide an active frontage, essentially acting as a ‘shop window’ for the college.
Two of the new gables are to re-use the Edwardian bricks from the demolished buildings and are to be laid to create a textured brick facade, highlighting the construction skills associated with the college. The remainder of the building is to be wrapped with standing seam metal cladding to the walls and roof, with roof lights providing enhanced day lighting to the teaching spaces.
The interior has been designed to be robust and continue the theme of ‘construction’, with exposed steelwork, concrete floors and stained OSB timber pods, creating individual training spaces within the volume of the workshop. Custom palette inspired furniture has been designed for the student canteen space to further the idea that with the application of skill and craftsmanship the ordinary can become extraordinary.
