Animal Studies Centre shortlisted for RIBA West Midlands Awards

Dudley College of Technology’s Animal Studies Centre has been shortlisted for the 2026 RIBA West Midlands Awards.

The Animal Studies Centre is one of nine projects shortlisted for the regional RIBA Awards.

RIBA West Midlands Jury Chair, Svetlana Solomonova, Architect Director at BDP, said:

“This year’s shortlist reflects the breadth and ambition of architectural practice across the region. The selected projects demonstrate a considered and intelligent approach to working with complex sites, existing buildings, and infrastructure, showcasing thoughtful strategies for retention, reuse, resource conservation, and resilience.

Spanning a wide range of scales, from regeneration-focused interventions to larger civic projects, the shortlist places strong emphasis on inclusivity, sustainability, and long-term value. Together, these projects elevate architectural quality while responding sensitively to context, purpose and the needs of the communities they serve.”

The new home for Dudley College’s Animal Care and Welfare Department was created through a deep retrofit of a mid-twentieth century campus building. Specialist spaces are integrated with flexible teaching and learning spaces to educate students in animal care and husbandry.

Finishing on time and under budget, the Animal Studies Centre has been a successful first outing for ‘IPI Lite’ – a variation of the Integrated Project Insurance (IPI) procurement model, where all the main parties (client, architect, engineers, contractors, and consultants) sign up to an alliance contract with conditions that incentivise shared responsibility and close collaboration.

The original brief called for demolition and new build. Challenging this new build approach, the IPI Alliance team demonstrated that a sustainable retrofit could achieve the same functional outcomes with a far lower carbon footprint and for the same cost.

This included the necessary 20% reduction to the build cost to account for VAT and resulted in cutting the embodied carbon of the buildings structure to just 51kgCO2e/m2, far below LETI school targets of 276kgCO2e/m2 (for new build structure).

The winners of the RIBA West Midlands Awards will be announced in May, and put forward for a RIBA National Award.

 

ASC IPI Alliance Team

  • Cullinan Studio (Architect + Principal Designer)

  • Cundall (Civil, Structural + Sustainability Engineer)

  • Derry Building Services (MEP design + contractor)

  • Dudley College of Technology (Client)

  • Fulcro (Digital Co-ordinator)

  • IPInitiatives (Independent Facilitator)

  • Speller Metcalfe (Primary Constructor)

 
 
 
 
Education, RetrofitAmy Glover