The College, Swansea University

A university building providing value to the local community and economy

Project Details

  • Scheme & Version: BREEAM UK New Construction 2014
  • Certification Stage: Design Interim Stage
  • Rating: Excellent
  • Overall Score: 80.2%

Project Team

  • Developer / Client: St Modwen and Swansea University
  • Architect: Porphyrios Architects and Piper Whitlock Architecture Ltd
  • Building Services: RDM Electrical and Mechanical Services
  • Constructor: VINCI Construction UK
  • Assessor Company: DRAC Consulting Limited
  • Employers Agent/ Project Manager: Prosurv Consult Limited
  • Structural Engineers: Rogers Leask

About the Building

The 65-acre waterfront site in Swansea was gifted by British Petroleum to the University, in partnership with St Modwen, one of the largest expert developers and regeneration specialists in the UK, the former oil transit site has been transformed into a 21st Century internationally acclaimed centre for academia. The campus master-planning commenced in 2010 and the development opened to students in September 2015. The rolling investment programme has currently delivered over one million ft² (92,900m2) of accommodation, state-of-the-art teaching, academic and research spaces, as well as restaurants, shops, library, students’ union and the Great Hall BP legacy building and accommodates over 5,000 students and 1,000 staff, effectively doubling the size of the University.

The building has a gross floor area of approximately 4,100m2 and comprises formal and informal teaching spaces, including classrooms, IT laboratories and areas where students can meet and undertake individual and small group study. These spaces are complimented by meetings rooms, and staff offices and facilities. The central heart space provides room for social and cultural activities and features a glazed atrium which maximises daylight down to the ground floor; whilst the southern viewing balconies provide magnificent views over the 8km sweep of the main Swansea Bay.

The College, strengthens the University’s decade-long partnership with Navitas (The International College Wales Swansea) and provides international students with under-graduate and post-graduate higher education pathways and longer-term employment with multi-national enterprises (MNE’s), and small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s). The Bay campus is expected to deliver an economic impact of more than £3 billion over 10 years.

The Bay Campus is located to the east of Swansea with direct access provided off Fabian Way. The development benefits from the nearby park and ride facility, direct public service and university bus services to Swansea, Singleton Campus and Hendrefoelan Student Village. The Swansea Bay cycle path links the two campus’s and provides a safe, healthy and sustainable transport alternative, with both campuses’ providing plenty of cycle parking and showering facilities as well as affordable cycle hire ‘hubs’ through Santander Cycles.

Why did the building undergo BREEAM certification?

Swansea University is committed to achieving the requirements of its Carbon Management Plan 2026 (CMP26) which aims to achieve a CO2 reduction of 35% across its estate by 2026. CMP26 has been developed to align with Swansea University’s Sustainability Strategy and is vital in supporting the
University’s Strategic Plan which makes the commitment to “operate on a resilient, compliant, and sustainable basis”. The University’s ambitions are fully
aligned with the strategic agenda of Welsh and UK Governments and it is active in the Low Carbon Economy, promoting research and development, innovation
and, skills development in this area.

The building performed well in all categories, achieving a minimum of 60% across the nine categories and 50% of the Innovation credits. The building did particularly well in Management, Health and Wellbeing, Materials and Pollution, achieving over 83% in each category. The Management and Materials categories both achieved 86% and Pollution category 85%, theoretically achieving an ‘Outstanding’ rating in these areas.

The College went on to also achieve a Post Construction Certification score of 80.2%.

Swansea University had a clear budget within which the Navitas project had to be delivered. The client insisted that project team focussed on adding value to the project without compromising quality. From the outset of the project, the project team worked closely with the client team to identify, develop and realise value engineering opportunities.

Maintaining the highest quality on site was always of paramount importance and the project team worked closely with Swansea University to enable them to meet their requirements. Collaborative working allowing for improved design solutions and robust detailing throughout the installation. The success of this project is evident in the delighted reactions from staff and students and the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) audit score of 44/50, with The College picking up a Silver Award at the CCS ‘Most Considerate Sites 2019’ awards.

VCUK provided monthly updates from all project team members and forecasts to the client. The updates included energy and water consumption measurements and transport of materials and waste logs, enabling reporting under Man03: Responsible Construction Practices to be achieved. A construction stage Sustainability Champion was also appointed which help ensure that the site-based requirements were undertaken, and suitable complaint evidence was provided throughout the construction stage. All aspects of the Man04 Commissioning and Handover and Man05 Aftercare were targeted and achieved; with the Client agreeing to a Post Occupancy Evaluation to ensure that any lessons learnt could be used to further streamline the next project on this new campus development.

VCUK in collaboration with the client team and subcontractors worked together to identify and deliver innovative solutions for The College. Designs were amended during construction to provide freestanding cantilevered glass balustrades to the terraces to maximise the magnificent views across Swansea Bay.

Given the physically and psychologically uplifting environment of the seaside and SSSI location it was of vital importance to reflect and incorporate the health and wellbeing of the building occupants within the design. To achieve this a natural ventilation strategy was employed and a site-specific Indoor Air Quality Plan prepared which required the use of low or zero volatile organic compounds (VOC) within the specified materials. This approach enabled two exemplary level credits to be achieved.

Careful consideration was also given to the thermal strategy to ensure that comfortable conditions could be achieved throughout the year. Zoning and controls enable the building to minimise heating and lighting requirements to the times when needed, effectively helping to reduce the Carbon footprint of the building. Whilst the early stage appointment of Sharps Redmore enabled all three Hea05: acoustic performance credits to be achieved.

Extensive research aided by VCUK’s supply chain database enabled six credits plus one exemplary credit to be achieved under Mat01. All six applicable elements were assessed and a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for embodied greenhouse gas emissions of 212.73 kgCO2 eq./m2 was achieved.

Suitable Green Guide to Specification (GGS) elements achieving either and ‘A’ or ‘A+’ summary rating, were selected for the hard landscaping and insulation and consideration was given to the responsible sourcing of materials enabling 37% of the available points to be achieved.

Given the harsh coastal environment and function of the building it was important to design out non-robust elements and then protect any remaining vulnerable areas from the wear and tear of student use. The harsh salt laden air had a direct effect on the selection of external materials particularly wall and window/ door finishes.

The original phase of the campus development made full use of its coastal location in respect of the ability to discharge surface water to the sea via a new outlet. A disadvantage of its location, particularly for The College’s location, was the risk of flooding from the over topping of the existing flood defences, however this was overcome by increasing the height of the revetment works and creating a promenade behind them.

Green Strategy

The Client’s strategy for The College was to mitigate the environmental impact of the construction activities throughout the construction period and achieve BREEAM Excellent and an EPC A rating. The challenges to this were the location of the building next to the coast and the adjoining SSSI, and to minimise disruption to the operational campus, particularly during exam times.

To enable the simple collection of data and achievement of the Man03: Responsible Construction Practices credits including the Considerate Constructors Scheme, VINCI Construction UK (VCUK) constructed a separate vehicle entrance away from the main campus entrance, which provided direct access to their storage compound/ employee’s car park and offices and subsequently segregated pedestrian paths to the site. Access for delivery vehicles was also timed to avoid peak traffic flow.

Of critical importance was the safeguarding of the restored dune habitat by preventing silts from migrating into watercourses. This was achieved through installation of cut-off ditches and geotextile silt fences around excavations. Hoardings were also provided to the protected grasses species on the revetment. An ecology management plan and accompanying method statement was put in place to meet the stringent local planning conditions. In accordance with the Ecological Management Plan the newly formed dunes including protected grass species were also protected from the construction works for the duration of the works.

With the campus in full occupation, works were segregated and managed to minimize disruption, avoiding noisy operations early in the morning and respecting exam times.

Crucial to the success of the BREEAM assessment was the early engagement with the project design team and the BREEAM Assessor, which enable early stage credits to be completed in line with the project RIBA stages. The use of Viewpoint enabled the Assessor to retrieve suitable evidence for the BREEAM Assessment and upload this to TrackerPlus, which in turn allowed the Design Team/ Contractor to check on the progress of the assessment as well as providing monthly trackers for inclusion within the Contractors monthly report to the Client.

Opportunities were identified by the Contractor at the pre-construction stage, such as the implementation of the early weathertight strategy which allowed fit-out works to commence much earlier than originally anticipated, giving the Client and Tenant the confidence that the building was going to be delivered on time.

Given the repetitive nature of the lecture theatres and teaching spaces on the project, it was critical to ensure that the quality benchmark was agreed with all stakeholders at an early stage. To achieve this, a quality ‘benchmark room’ was fully fitted out and finished ahead of programme to demonstrate and agree quality standards for the future delivery of all spaces on the project, therefore avoiding abortive works and costs.

Benefits of assessing to BREEAM

Swansea University is committed to achieving the requirements of its Carbon Management Plan 2026 (CMP26) which aims to achieve a CO2 reduction of 35% across its estate by 2026, by specifying BREEAM Excellent for all its academic buildings on the Bay Campus and requiring the use of low/ zero carbon energy supplies the University is on target to achieve this. The College has achieved credits for sub-metering with feedback to the University’s BMS; energy efficient internal and external lighting, photovoltaic panels, energy efficient lifts, energy efficient gas fired boilers for heating and hot water production as well as seven credits for energy use and carbon emission reductions.

working processes between the Client, Design Team and the Contractor. It has helped focus the team’s aspirations on achieving quality and value across all categories of the assessment methodology and provides formal confirmation of the sustainability objectives it set out to achieve. The final score of 80.2% and individual category scores provide benchmarks for future projects envisaged by the University to complete its portfolio.

“The Project Services team at Swansea University were delighted to be part of this high performing team. The collaborative approach established from the outset of this complex, multi-stakeholder build project which involved all parties pulling together to listen to, understand and respond effectively to each other’s feedback, enabled an early handover of the building with teaching able to start in the brand new facility at the start of the 2018/19 academic year.”    Ian Macpherson, Swansea University