HLM has won the contract to complete the detailed design and delivery of the New-Bridge Integrated College development in Loughbrickland, Northern Ireland, for Ganson UK.
“The New-Bridge Integrated College development has been designed to deliver an exceptional educational environment that caters to a wide range of curricular and extracurricular activities in an environment that fully supports students’ needs and enables enriched learning experiences.”
Located off Donard View Road, the development will replace the existing New-Bridge Integrated College to make way for a new 10,000 sq metre school building and sports hall for its 620 pupils. It will be built by Ganson UK on the site of the existing school and an adjacent field under a phased demolition programme that will allow the school to remain operational throughout.
The school, which currently comprises two main buildings and a series of modular buildings, will be replaced with a modern new build designed across three sections of the site. The main school building will be arranged with two wings of teaching space connected by a central block that will house the entrance, library, and dining facilities. A new sports hall will be constructed and externally, a sports pitch, synthetic pitch and tennis courts will be created. Other facilities will include rehearsal and recording facilities for media studies. A car parking area, school bus drop-off point, and new entrance onto Donard View Road have also been integrated into the design to improve access to the school.
Emma-Louise Hannigan, Associate at HLM Architects, said: “The New-Bridge Integrated College development has been designed to deliver an exceptional educational environment that caters to a wide range of curricular and extracurricular activities in an environment that fully supports students’ needs and enables enriched learning experiences.”
“The site and phasing of this project present some challenges, but we look forward to using our extensive experience in delivering schools to develop a scheme that supports and motivates a community of learners and provides them with the facilities they need to excel.”
The project has been designed to RIBA Stage 3 by AECOM and BIM Level 2 and is already on track to achieve a BREEAM excellent rating. Construction is due to commence in Summer 2022.
