Members of the design team from NPS Group's Exeter office have proudly accepted a prestigious 2011 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) award for their design of the �45million Bideford College.
Members of the design team from NPS Group’s Exeter office have proudly accepted a prestigious 2011 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) award for their design of the �45million Bideford College.
The RIBA awards are the Oscars of the architectural world and this year’s regional award ceremony was held at the Guildhall in Salisbury. The College, which was opened for students in September 2010, has already scooped several awards for design and sustainability. Competition was extremely tough and NPS Group was up against the region’s foremost architectural practices, with judges taking into consideration invention and originality as well as the complexity of the scheme, its sustainability features and social factors. The College will now automatically go forward to the national RIBA awards to be held in London in October.
Bideford College is a school for students aged 11 to 18 and the project formed part of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, selected as a ‘One School Pathfinder’. The client, Devon County Council, saw the BSF initiative as an opportunity to create an institution of learning that cultivates knowledge, skills and values, enabling children and young people to contribute to a future in which all people live lives of quality and dignity, and in which the productivity of the environment is restored and sustained.
NPS Group provided full design services for the scheme which includes a six badminton court sports hall, theatre/cinema, dance studio, drama studio and music rooms. The College was designed to maximise its flexibility in use throughout its lifespan from the way in which teaching spaces of varying sizes can be combined for different purposes and the potential for community use.
Arthur Tatchell, Director of Architecture for NPS Group said “We are absolutely thrilled that when the RIBA judges visited the College they too picked up on the building’s wow factor that has delighted the students and teachers.”
