Development name: Art and Design building, Nottingham Trent University

Location: 40-42 Shakespeare Street, Nottingham

Size: 5,300 square meters

Architect: Hawkins/Brown

Developer: Nottingham Trent University

Scheme type: Educational Building

The new £35m art and design building for Nottingham Trent University, as design by Hawkins/Brown, will deliver a variety of workspaces for designing, collaboration areas, specialist studios and labs, teaching rooms and public exhibition and a café space. This whole-life net zero carbon university building will help to enhance the link between the Nottingham Trent University campus and the city.

The development will replace redundant buildings on the corner of Shakespeare Street and North Sherwood Street, exploiting views to and from the city whilst respective the neighbouring heritage buildings.

Using their self-developed, open-source H/B:ERT software, Hawkins/Brown have optimised their choice of materials (such as post-tensioned concrete slabs and ceramic cladding) to reduce their carbon impact to help achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and DEC ‘A’ rating.

Professor Edward Peck, Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University, said:

“It will expand our contribution to the creative industries and be a major driver of innovation and technology in art and design, allowing us to be at the forefront of the creative industries and building upon our heritage of the past 175 years.”

A future aspiration, alongside the development, is to create a nearby green space for students, colleagues, and the local community to enjoy as part of Nottingham Trent University’s commitment to greening the city and enhancing the biodiversity of the university environment.