Gower College Centre for Exellence

The Centre of Excellence at Gower College will transform a former Tesco warehouse/retail building into a high quality contemporary facility for Engineering, Built Environment, and Motor Vehicle Training. The project aims to create a flexible, digitally enabled, and sustainable learning environment that reflects the College’s commitment to industry collaboration, technical excellence, and future-focused education.

  • Type Education, Workspace
  • Location Gower College, Wales
  • Status Competition
  • Size 2000 sqm
  • Year 2025
Gower College Centre for Exellence
This project will be delivered as an equal partnership between MOST Architecture and Huw Griffiths Architects, each contributing 50% of resource and responsibility.
MOST will lead on concept design, technical coordination of specialist equipment, and sustainability integration, drawing on its experience in high-tech industrial environments.
As a Principal Designer Huw Griffiths Architects will lead on educational space planning, institutional brief development, and on-site delivery, building on a long-standing relationship with Gower College and intimate knowledge of its estate and operational priorities.

A collaborative, staged methodology combining adaptive reuse expertise with deep insights into vocational education. This approach delivers a future-ready, sustainable Centre for Excellence that reflects Gower College’s civic mission and long-term strategic goals.
To ensure a clear, structured approach to the design and delivery of the Centre for Excellence, MOST Architecture and Huw Griffiths Architects will follow the RIBA Plan of Work, aligning each project stage with specific deliverables, stakeholder inputs, and decision-making milestones.

This framework allows us to integrate architectural vision, technical performance, and educational functionality in a transparent and phased manner. It also provides a shared reference point for collaboration between the College, consultants, and contractors - ensuring that risks are proactively managed, sustainability targets embedded early, and the evolving brief remains at the heart of the design. What follows is our project-specific methodology across each RIBA Work Stage.
We see this project not only as a building but as a learning tool. Through our stakeholder and student engagement process, we will seed long-term educational value - enabling students to experience real-world design development and understand how their future facilities are shaped.
Gower College Centre for Exellence
Existing Building Constraints & Unknowns:
Age and Condition: Older buildings often have poor insulation and outdated systems. Understanding existing performance is essential, but reliable data is often limited. Demolition can reveal hidden issues, causing unexpected delays and costs.
- Structural Limitations: Adapting existing structures for systems like heat pumps or PV panels can be difficult and expensive.
- Fabric Performance: Enhancing wall and window insulation is especially tricky in heritage buildings due to conservation constraints. Breathability in traditional construction must be maintained. Given the building is around 20 years old, original construction drawings may be retrievable to assess thermal performance.
- Space Constraints: Space limitations can make it difficult to install efficient systems, renewables, or amenities like cycle storage or waste facilities - often needed for BREEAM credits.
- Layout and Daylight: Existing plans and window sizes may restrict daylight and ventilation, affecting BREEAM health and wellbeing criteria.
Gower College Centre for Exellence
These double-height workshop halls form the heart of the Centre of Excellence. Designed as open, transparent, and adaptable environments, they echo the spatial qualities of advanced manufacturing facilities while remaining fully tuned to teaching needs. Expansive glazing, robust finishes, and integrated service zones allow students to work on real vehicles and technical installations in a space that feels both professional and inspiring. The visibility across different work bays encourages collaboration, while the modular fit-out ensures the facility can evolve alongside new technologies in engineering and construction.
Gower College Centre for Exellence
By combining industrial-grade robustness with carefully considered lighting and circulation, the workshops foster a culture of “learning through doing.” Students are immersed in an environment that mirrors the workplaces they will soon enter — preparing them not just with technical skills, but with an instinctive understanding of modern engineering practice.
Gower College Centre for Exellence

Smaller Workshop / Studio

Alongside the main halls, more intimate studio-workshops provide space for focused experimentation, prototyping, and small group teaching. Here, the material palette is deliberately tactile — timber linings and exposed steel create a hands-on, workshop-like atmosphere that encourages creativity and craft. These spaces can accommodate anything from product design projects to digital fabrication, bridging the gap between classroom instruction and full-scale industrial work.

The smaller studios reinforce the ethos of adaptability: furniture, storage, and services are configured for rapid reorganisation. Whether hosting a seminar, a demonstration, or a collaborative project, these rooms enable students to take ownership of their learning environment and make it their own.

Gower College Centre for Exellence

Canteen and Social Space

The canteen is designed as much more than a place to eat — it is the social heart of the building. Flooded with daylight, framed by generous planting, and defined by warm natural materials, the space is welcoming and inclusive. Long communal tables encourage interaction between different disciplines, creating moments of exchange and cross-pollination that extend the learning experience beyond the classroom.

With a mix of café counters, informal seating, and quieter corners, the canteen also acts as an informal learning hub. Students can gather for group work, pause between workshops, or simply recharge in a vibrant setting that reflects the civic ambition of the College.

Gower College Centre for Exellence

Exterior and Campus Identity

Externally, the new Centre of Excellence asserts a strong and confident identity within the wider Gower College estate. Clad in reflective metal panels and surrounded by sustainable landscaping, the building signals its role as a forward-looking hub for technical education. The approach route — carefully designed with natural planting and pathways — creates a sense of arrival and frames the building as a civic landmark.

This bold yet refined architectural language conveys both professionalism and accessibility. It ensures that students, staff, and visitors recognise the Centre as a place of ambition: a facility that reflects the importance of vocational training to the region’s economy and cultural life.

 

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