Design process

The Jubilee Campus was the product of an architectural competition organised with the support of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), which attracted over 100 entries. Hopkins and Partners were appointed as architects, with Ove Arup and Partners as services and structural engineers and Battle McCarthy as landscape architects.

Funding for the £50 m project included generous donations from friends and benefactors. An EU 'thermie' grant (which support renewable energy projects) of £750,000 funded additional equipment in support of the energy efficiency targets and first year post occupation monitoring.

The client chose a construction management contract to involve the contractor in the project at an early stage, allowing the design information to be packaged and market tested. National contractors Bovis and Laing constructed the new campus, with the combined building project employing more than 1,000 site workers. The Contractors were encouraged to participate in the City of Nottingham's City Challenge Scheme to assist local employment. Some 40 of 70 subcontracts went to local companies.

The brief demanded a wide range of facilities from student accommodation to the high specification School of Management and Finance faculty building. Environmental issues had to be addressed in both the choice of materials and the energy demands of the building systems.

From the initial land purchase to building completion took four and a half years. Outline planning permission was granted in Spring 1996 and the site was ready for the beginning of the 1999/2000 academic year.