News
4 February 2009
Pick Everard appointed project architect for University of Derby £8 million Business & Enterprise Centre
As one of the UK’s foremost architects for the education sector, Pick Everard has revealed that designs for the University of Derby’s Business & Enterprise Centre were recommended for full planning approval on 18th December 2008.
The aim of the purpose-built centre is to provide a dedicated facility for a number of start-up businesses and support agencies including Business Link, banks and professional bodies. As a non-campus addition to the university’s growing estate, it will house offices, training and conference facilities, all designed to the highest commercial sector standards. With a distinctive C-shaped footprint, this will be a three-story brick-faced structure, boasting dramatic, tall windows. On both sides of the main entrance, a vertical wall will be planted with vegetation to add emphasis and create a ‘green’ courtyard. A second entrance, featuring a triangular glazed structure, will give the building a modern feeling yet remains in keeping with the surrounding street scene.
Pick Everard has designed the building mass to match the typical street characteristic of the city of Derby and to reinstate the historical town house footprint, in parallel with the City Council’s plans to regenerate Nun’s Street in future. At the corner of the proposed building, a single storey rooftop structure with a living roof will have roof eaves to match the height of the nearby white-rendered Grade II-listed building, St John’s Terrace.
Pick Everard has incorporated a number of sustainable features into the design, including rainwater harvesting, a wind catcher and automatic opening and closing windows for heating and cooling, all controlled by a Building Management System. The building is being designed to achieve the highest possible Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) rating.
Pick Everard project architect Chong Wong said, “Every new project brings its own element of excitement and so it is particularly encouraging to be part of a project that will have a far-reaching, positive impact on businesses in Derby in years to come. Pick Everard has set the wheels in motion and using our design expertise we will create a motivating setting for new business to flourish.”
Pick Everard will work alongside contractors throughout the University of Derby project, which is scheduled to start this spring, with completion planned for 2010.
