The University of Lincoln’s Brayford Campus provides a strong example of how RMJM’s experience of collaborative style can be successfully applied throughout the development process.
RMJM see this ability to work ‘up front’ with our client as an essential and integral part of our service, and regard it as an invaluable asset to our clients in formulating design information tailored to the issues and the funding available.
The campus is located on former British Rail land adjacent to the city centre, with views north to a skyline dominated by the city’s medieval cathedral. The northern edge of the site is bound by the Brayford Pool, a historic area of water formed where the Fossdyke Canal meets the River Witham. A mainline railway traverses the southern part of the site and a retail park occupies a prominent adjacent site.
In order to provide the University with their vision of an efficient, ordered and attractive centre of learning excellence, RMJM dealt with major site constraints. These included poor ground conditions and a serious risk of flooding from the nearby waterways. RMJM’s landscape architects introduced environmentally sound techniques for dealing with contaminated land on the site. Noise pollution from the adjacent railway tracks also had to be addressed in the masterplan for the new campus.
Finally, links between the new campus and the nearby town centre needed to be strengthened, a process achieved with the incorporation of new road and canal crossings into the overall masterplan.
