National College for High Speed Rail
by Bond Bryan Architects
Client Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council ,
Awards RIBA Yorkshire Award 2018, RIBA Yorkshire Sustainability Award 2018 - sponsored by Geberit
The Jury immediately recognised the Regional importance for Doncaster to attract the National College for High Speed Rail. It reflects the local historical railway heritage (The Flying Scotsman was made in Doncaster) and reinforces local rail business such as Hitachi and Siemens, now based in the area. Here a current generation of recruits will be trained to work on the new rail network.
The building design balances a teaching environment for post 18 year olds with the engineering and commercial aspirations of a complex client structure managed by Doncaster Council.
Located on the outskirts of Doncaster in a commercial retail park, the glazed picture windows at each end of the ‘railway shed’ stand out like a beacon giving views of the full sized ‘High-Speed’ locomotive accommodated in the atrium. The saw-tooth roof form is seen by the architects as a modern interpretation of the traditional engineering factory, but with an additional vertical section that provides north facing lights and p.v. solar panels.
Landscaping has been carefully considered, not only to contribute to BREEAM Excellent with its Bio diversity and rainwater harvesting but a service yard capable of transferring large locomotives from road to rail and full sized ‘mock-ups’ of the HS2 track profile.
The facility has yet to reach its capacity of 1045 students, but is providing to be an attractive and flexible accommodation for re-training and upskilling existing rail workers.
The building has been designed to exemplary environmental standards achieving maximum BREEAM points in several categories.
Contractor Willmott Dixon Construction
Structural Engineer Curtains
Environmental/M&E Engineers Buro Happold
Project Management Faithful & Gould
Acoustic Engineers Environmental Noise Solutions Ltd
Landscape Architects Ares Landscape Architects Ltd
Fire Engineering Consultant Hoare Lea
