University of Gloucestershire, Centre for Active Learning (CeAL) CETL, Cheltenham
| Contact Details: | Carolyn Roberts, croberts@glos.ac.uk |
| Type of Project: | The main element was a new building but there was also a refurbishment of part of the Victorian campus running concurrently. |
| Start/End Date: | CETL Bid April 2004, second stage October 2004, won award in January 2005 (demolition began Summer 2005), new building opened in September 2006. |
Lessons Learned
The building is 'intelligent' in terms of its energy use, but due to changes in the planned for 'local' heating system controls halfway through the development these were moved to another site and they are still not quite right. It is a fairly minor problem.
There have been a few small glitches with the smartcard entry system, the systems are quite new and not terribly robust.
There have been some problems with the automatic door opening systems which were designed for mobility impaired people e.g. the touchpad that opens the door has not always been operational, which is obviously not ideal.
There are still some issues which the sector needs to address in terms of guidance on the most effective basic things like door opening systems that do not burn out, and associated with that are security systems that let in the right people and keep out the wrong people. That is not only on this campus, other universities have similar issues.
During the building phase there were other developments across the rest of the campus and it is quite difficult to tie-up a stand alone development (such as this one) with other changes across the campus. Changes to main walkways have been made affecting access arrangements to the building and they are being looked at again.
