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Education, Health & Social

Claverton Campus

27315 Campus Views and 4 West.Views across the lake. Water lilies and amphitheatre. New 4W West Building Taken across lake with reflections and ducks. Client: Louise Paton – IDPS

Project Details

Sustainable context

The University of Bath’s campus is set high above the city on Claverton Down, within an acutely sensitive historic landscape defined by the World Heritage Site, the Chilterns AONB and Green Belt. Its unique character and quality is an essential part of the University’s identity and appeal to students, staff and partners alike.

The need for the University to continue to grow and ensure that its estate meets the needs of a highly performing higher education institution is imperative, and in that context Define led the preparation of a new Campus Masterplan.

The Masterplan provides a vision for the future of the Claverton Campus. It seeks to enable the delivery of the development and infrastructure required to facilitate its sustainable growth in a manner that ensures the University can remain a diligent custodian of the landscape. It also begins to address the challenge of transitioning to a net zero carbon campus following the University’s declaration of a climate emergency in 2020.
Growth strategy and masterplan
The Masterplan is comprised of complementary building, movement, sport and green infrastructure strategies which enable the delivery of the academic and residential accommodation and infrastructure as and when required, whilst also protecting and enhancing the overall functionality and unique beauty of the campus.

The University recognises that the built development elements will need to be sensitively designed to take account of the landscape, heritage and ecological sensitivities. Detailed environmental assessments and consultation with stakeholders has allowed the emerging proposals to be refined, key parameters for the extent and scale of the proposed built form to be defined and the development capacity tested in three dimensions.

The Masterplan has been prepared in collaboration with Bath & North East Somerset Council. Campus masterplanning and planning policy matters have become ever more intertwined and complex and it responds to the current policy context by providing a clear understanding of the key environmental constraints and the remaining capacity for development within the University’s estate. However, it now also underpins the new policies in the Council’s Local Plan to provide a positive policy context for its implementation through determination of future planning applications that has been missing to date.
Image courtesy of Stride Treglown
    Delivery
    Define is now advising on the implementation of the Campus Masterplan.

    Planning permission was secured for the provision of a new all-weather pitch in January 2024. This unique pitch, constructed solely of recyclable materials, will greatly increase the playing capacity and quality of sports pitches within the campus. Detailed consideration was also given to the lighting and landscape design, given the site’s setting within the National Landscape and its proximity to sensitive bat movement corridors; resulting in the incorporation of a highly specified lighting regime to limit lighting spill.

    The pitch has now been constructed and opened for use at the start of the 2025/26 academic year.

    More recently, Define has led the submission and negotiation of a full planning application for the delivery of 926 bed spaces, facilitated by the delivery of the sports facility.

    The Council has now resolved to grant full planning permission for the development, marking a significant milestone in the continued evolution of the University’s estate and the culmination of a complex planning process within a sensitive environment. In doing so, we have worked closely with the University, the design team and key stakeholders to navigate the key policy considerations, including the site’s location within the Cotswolds National Landscape and Bath World Heritage Site, as well as its proximity to a sensitive bat commuting corridor.

    We also undertook an iterative assessment of the visual and landscape character impacts in order to balance the need to maximise the site’s capacity whilst responding to its sensitive landscape and heritage context.

    Define is looking forward to realising the delivery of this high-quality and truly sustainable development, which will support the continued success of the University and the benefits that it brings as a world-leading Higher Education institution.

    Project Team

    Mark Rose

    Kirstie Clifton

    Peter Dunlop

    Mike Fenton

    Sam Perkins

    Hannah Post

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