Firm beat off competition from Bam, Cowlin, Leadbitter and Sir Robert McAlpine to win the project

Skanska has been awarded the main construction contract on a new building for Bath Spa University’s Newton Park campus.

The firm beat off competition from Bam, Cowlin, Leadbitter and Sir Robert McAlpine to win the project, which forms part of the University’s £40m campus redevelopment programme and is worth around £25m.

The building will provide technology-enabled study space and teaching facilities, as well as a new digital space with the best resources for teaching digital media courses in the South-west.

The development forms the first stage of a masterplan which will include new student accommodation in its next phase.

Designed in consultation with English Heritage and Natural England, the building will have a BREEAM rating of ‘excellent’.

Skanska plans to incorporate energy-saving lighting systems and a living roof, and a new high-tech energy centre will be built to support the project.

Vice-chancellor Professor Frank Morgan said: “With this project Bath Spa University moves to a new stage in its progress as one of the UK’s most successful modern universities. The new building will consolidate our position as a major provider of courses involving digital technology with all that means for the regional economy and the employability of our students.

“We are delighted to be working with Skanska, who share our environmental ethos and will use their experience of educational settings to produce an outstanding building of real architectural distinction.”

Martin Nunns, managing director of Skanska Building – Central and Regions said: “Skanska are delighted to be working with a university that shares our environmental principles. While Bath Spa University has a first class award in the People & Planet Green League, Skanska UK has won the British Quality Foundation’s Achievement Award for Sustainable Future and was named the UK’s Best Green Company by the Sunday Times. It’s the perfect partnership.”

Skanska has a strong record on education work in the South-west, including the UK’s first Building Schools for the Future programme in Bristol.

Construction work will begin on the new building in mid-2012, and will be complete in early 2014.

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