Bradford College had appointed Bowman Riley Architects to help them refurbish a dated, underutilised flexible meeting facility into a modern multipurpose breakout space for students. Branding ‘Student Central’, the facility was to be a welcoming environment, somewhere students could go for support, wellbeing and recreation. The project was procured through a traditional tender process, and Ben Johnson Interiors was successfully awarded principal contractor role, procured through a JCT Minor works contract.

Bradford College is a budget conscious and sustainable focused college so reuse and upcycling was an important part of the project. Ben Johnson worked with the project team to determine what could be reused. The works included the strip out enabling works, with existing carpet tiles carefully removed and safely stored for reuse where possible to reduce the carbon footprint. All doors were to be refurbished and retained; the existing bi-foldable doors were restored by wrapping them in vinyl graphics to create a feature. The existing support desk was repositioned and upcycled, clad with oat acoustic wall panels and grey vinyl to give it a more modern appeal. The project included minor mechanical electrical works, with the existing trunking, lighting and CCTV modified and supplemented as required.

‘Student Central’ was effectively two rooms, a games room and a media lounge. A bi-folding wall separated the two rooms and could be open to create a larger events space. When used as two separate rooms the games area included a student services help desk, pool table, football table and ping pong table. The media area included a smart screen and flexible furniture, to allow the space to be used as a lounge or cinema.

Three types of new vinyl flooring were installed as part of the contract, used to define different types of breakout zones, creating a softer more inviting facility. New feature lights in the form of various styles of hanging pendants were also incorporated together with various types of LED lighting and lightboxes for branding, way finding and to identify zones.

The best way to create visual interest in a small space is to look at the wall finishes, wall materials can help define areas and create those instagrammable features that are important to the Gen Z students. ‘Student Central’ included a variety of wall finishes, from exposed polished concrete to feature painted walls with the use of acoustic panels as notice boards. A full height black and white panorama wallpaper of Bradford city centre was also installed across one wall elevation. Further feature walls included the installation of a new faux planting wall W5000 x H2000.

When fitting out spaces with multiple zones it is important to consider acoustics and sound transfer. The ‘Student Central’ scheme included a media area, so to create a feature and control reverberation, the TV was set into an acoustic timber clad wall. The space was finished off with decorative pendants and U shaped sofa seating and flexible poufs, to support collaboration and offer comfort to watch movies and hold events.

The Finished Project

The ‘Student Central’ scheme has now been brought to life, offering a great flexible facility for students. From the soft seating to the feature wall, the space has been transformed from dated and underutilised, to modern, dynamic, visually appealing and of course, instagrammable for those Gen Z’s! As with all education fit out and refurbishment projects, we were working to a tight timeframe, all works had to be completed in the 6 weeks holidays to ensure the space was ready for the start of term.