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The inspiration behind the design of the David Hockney Building at Bradford College is said to be the mill buildings for the textile industries centred around Bradford. The most iconic of these is the Salts Mill, named after Sir Titus Salt, an early industrialist who not only built an important mill adjacent to the Leeds and Liverpool canal, but also created an astonishingly beautiful Victorian model village for mill workers in the same style. It’s well worth a trip to Saltaire, Northern Bradford, to see it - along with the gallery in Salts Mill that houses a permanent David Hockney exhibition, and architectural history of the mill.

In the same enlightened way, the new college building is centred round the College's vision of creating a space that encourages and supports innovative forms of teaching and learning.

PROJECT BACKGROUND
In 2008, Bradford College embarked upon a comprehensive redevelopment strategy funded by the Learning and Skills Council. In 2009, the LSC withdrew the funds and the College was forced to reconsider their strategy with a majority self-funded project in a volatile and challenging marketplace. With assistance from Bond Bryan Architects, the College boldly devised a reduced scale development that, at its core, retained the original aims of embracing educational transformation within a truly flexible environment, while realising efficiencies in space utilisation and providing flexible-use spaces to accommodate changing learning methods.

The development is approximately 24,000 sqm (258,000 square feet) with a construction cost of approximately £38m. This represents outstanding value for money. At the outset of the construction works, the team were challenged to save £2m of Value Engineering. Neither quality nor vision was diluted thanks to a strong team approach from all, with elements of the project actually becoming enhanced by a collaborative approach to value engineering. The exceptional quality and workmanship achieved by the subcontractors throughout is indicative of this process.

DESIGN CONCEPT
Externally, the development draws upon the historic precedents set by the Victorian mill buildings situated within Bradford, while seeking to create an economic solution with locally sourced (Brighouse) natural sandstone. It pays homage to the textile industry of Bradford by replicating the concept of a fabric weave within the coloured segments of the elevations. This was created using an innovative cladding system that allowed the builders to achieve water-tightness more quickly and was less labour intensive on site

Internally, the scheme was viewed as a single entity collaborative heart space, surrounded by specialist teaching zones. This required a move away from traditional, teacher-led styles of delivery in smaller cellular classrooms, and into larger, more flexible spaces that offer a range of potential learning environments.

MATERIALS
Inherent sustainability was a key component of the design and the supply chain were involved from an early stage. Lean construction workshops helped create efficiencies but also fostered an environment of collaboration. The traditional concrete frame was redesigned as a post-tensioned solution, saving a third off the concrete. This also reduced the amount of deliveries to the site. All timber used was from registered sustainable sources where possible, including the plywood hoardings that enclosed the site - these were used for shuttering the retaining walls in the external works scheme.

Other systems of construction were chosen with sustainability in mind. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) carried out a predemolition audit on the existing buildings to be demolished in order to identify all opportunities for recycling or re-using materials. 98% of the existing buildings were identified as reusable or recyclable to achieve water-tightness more quickly, proving less labour intensive on site.

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