Planning application approved for Dudley College of Technology's Animal Care Building

Plans have been approved for the deep retrofit of a 1950s building on Dudley College of Technology’s Broadway Campus, to provide a dedicated purpose-built home for their Animal Care department.

The Animal Care faculty offers hands-on training to give students skills in caring for the wellbeing of pets, working animals, livestock and wildlife. Specialist spaces in the refurbished building will be integrated with flexible teaching and learning spaces to support attainment of qualifications in Animal Care.

The Animal Care Building is Cullinan Studio’s second project with Dudley College, following the highly successful Black Country and Marches Institute of Technology (BCMIoT), which welcomed its first cohort of students in September 2021. It is also their second project to be procured using the transformative Integrated Project Insurance (IPI) model. The BCMIoT has shown how good collaboration can successfully deliver a complex, innovative building on time and under budget.

Put simply, in an IPI model all the main parties (client, architect, engineers, contractors and consultants) sign up to a single alliance contract, with conditions that incentivise shared responsibility and close collaboration. The IPI model eliminates an enormous amount waste from the design and construction process, saving time and money for the client, while delivering the desired success criteria. The IPI method is also proving to be an effective approach to meeting net zero carbon targets and has the benefit of supporting the mental well-being of everyone involved by discouraging the ‘blame game’.

Richard Pulford, Head of Cullinan Studio’s Midlands office said: “We’re delighted to be working again with Dudley College of Technology and the project alliance, to deliver a further project under the IPI model. It is a great opportunity to build on the hugely positive experience from BCMIoT, implement lessons learnt and continue to push the boundaries of the model in a deep retrofit scenario”.