Campus masterplan: re-imagining the next generation campus
Building inspiring spaces
A multidimensional campus
From individual to civic impact
Investing in our estate and its environment is vital. Our buildings and spaces support the creation and sharing of knowledge but also the social fabric and wellbeing of everyone – students, staff and visitors.
Our Campus Masterplan is supporting investment to create an inspiring, progressive and sustainable environment in the heart of our vibrant city.
Our mission is to advance knowledge and transform lives. Our campus must support excellence and enhance collaboration to achieve this.
Blending state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities with attractive casual and social spaces the aim is to facilitate creativity and the sharing of ideas and knowledge.
A 10-year plan for a first-class campus
Over the next 10 years, the University will be significantly investing in its campus to ensure a first-class learning, research and working environment that is centred on low carbon design, befitting of a leading university. Through a number of proposed developments, our campus will be designed for teaching, working, living and socialising in the 21st century – nurturing excellence, inspiration and creativity.
It will be a showcase for the interesting and ground-breaking work that the University undertakes. This will include the development of new teaching, learning, research, social and green spaces, as well as the maintenance and refurbishment of our existing space as we seek to enhance our sense of place and the public realm, improve navigability and promote our leading sustainability values and net zero carbon goals.
New engineering and design facility
The new engineering and design facility will provide a state-of-the-art space to inspire creativity, innovation and collaboration from our engineering and design pioneers of tomorrow.
Situated on the western edge of our city centre campus, the landmark facility will transform the teaching capacity and research capability of the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics and School of Art, Design and Architecture.
Through exemplary social, research and teaching spaces, it will facilitate a new depth of collaboration across related subject areas, facilitating brilliant minds coming together and solving real-world issues.
Housing contemporary specialist equipment and laboratories, it will bring engineering, science and the arts together, enabling holistic and creative approaches to problem-solving to address some of the world’s biggest issues, such as climate change and healthcare.
More than just a building
The facility will involve a dedicated new-build component and refurbishment of the 1970s Babbage Building, creating more than 10,000m² of research and teaching space. It will combine re-equipped laboratories with modern, state-of-the-art resources that will enable engineering research to underpin the fourth industrial revolution, while creating the attractive environment necessary to attract and retain high-calibre staff and students.
The cutting-edge building will inspire new inter-disciplinary activities in teaching, learning and research, and nurture the innovative graduate engineers demanded by future society. It will incorporate low carbon technologies, supporting the aims of both the University and company to achieve net zero carbon emissions and promote world-leading sustainability practices.
“This is a landmark project that will have a number of significant benefits for the University and wider community. Over the past decade and more, we have invested in our estate and created outstanding research and teaching facilities in the arts and health, ocean science and sustainability. This project will enable us to build on our existing expertise in engineering and design, and provide staff and students with a facility that matches their aspirations and enables them to push the boundaries in addressing real-world challenges.”
Colin Cobb, Associate at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, said:
“Our proposals for the engineering and design facility will provide state-of-the-art new facilities through the sustainable re-use of existing infrastructure. Our plans take the building back to the original concrete frame – a characterful waffle-slab construction – that will be revealed by stripping out suspended ceilings and overhead services to create open and well-lit spaces to promote creativity, cross-disciplinary collaboration and wellbeing. The design has incorporated a range of complex and ambitious technical facilities, which will provide engineering and design students with the experience and skills they need to design our future.”
InterCity Place
A new home for the Faculty of Health
The Intercity Place project is a demonstration of the University’s commitment to training the next generation of health professionals.
It will house inter-professional clinical skills facilities and be used to train future nurses, midwives, paramedics, physiotherapists, and other allied health professionals. There will also be additional educational services, enabling staff to work together in one location to support the future health workforce.
The project will involve the complete regeneration of an 11-storey building overlooking Plymouth Railway Station and planning permission was granted in 2019. In August 2020, the University signed a long-term lease to take over the building. The building is being designed to SKA-Gold standard, incorporating low carbon design principles.
Professor Judith Petts CBE, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Plymouth, said:
“These past few months have shown, if we didn’t know it already, the true importance of our NHS. As the largest provider of healthcare training in the South West, University of Plymouth staff, students and graduates have played a key role in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. This project will ensure continued delivery and indeed expansion of the vital workforce training for our hospitals and frontline healthcare services whatever health challenges present themselves in the future. It also demonstrates our commitment to, and confidence in, the city of Plymouth, helping to transform this landmark building and breathing new life into a key part of our community.”
Project commencement
Intercity Place has the backing of the Heart of the SW LEP, Cornwall Council, the Department for Transport and the Cabinet Office, as well as Plymouth City Council and Great Western Railway. It is a key element in the wider regeneration of Plymouth Railway Station which, when finished, will massively improve the welcome for visitors and commuters arriving in Britain’s Ocean City.
The Brunel Plaza project also involves an upgrade for the station, including improvements to the station concourse, which will double the capacity of the existing gate-line and offer better shops and facilities for passengers.
There will also be a major revamp of the surrounding area, a new hotel and multi-storey car park, improvements to public areas and enhanced links to the city centre.
