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Creative Skills Centre

Completion Date November 2016

Contract Value £4.5m

Client Eastleigh College

A bold but simple new landmark building for Eastleigh College in Hampshire has created a sense of presence for the College on its main campus. The block is home to the Finance and Business Academy; Art, Design and Media Department; and a Hair and Beauty department, which includes a street-facing commercial salon on the ground floor to attract business. A triple height atrium at the heart of the building acts as a circulation hub. Providing a visual link between the faculties, it can be used as a gathering area, exhibition space, or host to lectures or fashion shows. Teaching spaces are flexible to allow the college to expand and contract as necessary – flexibility of future uses was fundamental to the brief. The main south facing elevation is clad with vertical brise-soleil to mitigate solar gains, with an array of fins giving the college a distinct and civic presence.

The project has been shortlisted for the RIBA South Award 2018

Photography by Craig Auckland, Fotohaus