The award-winning studio seen from surrounding parkland
UAL has won a prestigious Ashden Award at the New London Architecture Awards for the new studio building at Wimbledon College of Arts. The Ashden Award is given to a building which champions sustainability by achieving excellent energy efficiency.
UAL recognises the huge impact its building stock has, not only on our environmental footprint but also on the experience of the staff and students who use the buildings on a daily basis. On any given day, you are likely to spend more time awake at your place of work or study than you will at home. But, that doesn’t have to be a depressing fact, if you can go to a building like the new studio at Wimbledon.
The studio at Wimbledon is the first time UAL’s Design Brief for Sustainability has been put into practice for a new free standing building. The Design Brief targets BREEAM Outstanding for all new builds. BREEAM Outstanding represents a building that goes beyond best practice for environmental sustainability and user comfort and delivers innovation that will lead the building sector to a more sustainable future. Wimbledon Studio has an excellently insulated shell, rain water collection and solar panels on the roof. Its key innovation deliveries are the use of and control of spaces.
It is built as a shell space to maintain flexibility of use without the need for environmentally and financially costly fit outs. The temperature and light controls respond to space requirements. The studio is naturally ventilated, with automatic opening windows to regulate temperature. All lights are on zoned sensors to ensure they are only on when that space is required.
The studio also won a Green Apple Award during construction in 2014.
These awards are a great recognition of UAL’s commitment to building new sustainable, comfortable and inspiring spaces, which will be carried into the major new building projects at Stratford and Elephant & Castle.