Open to the community. Designing flexible, sustainable college estates that go beyond the classroom

In our latest insight piece, Lee Protheroe, Associate Director, writes about how education estates are working with buildings that have been shaped by different priorities and standards from another time. Today, those same estates are being asked to support a much broader role, navigating net zero, community use, inclusivity, wellbeing, budget constraints, and stringent government standards, among many other competing demands.

For years, education estates have evolved incrementally, shaped by changing priorities, funding cycles and shifting demands on space. As a result, estate teams today are often working with buildings that were never designed to meet the wide-ranging expectations now placed on them. They are responding to a legacy of ageing stock while supporting modern teaching, improving wellbeing, meeting sustainability targets, opening to communities, creating flexible spaces, and managing estate rationalisation, relocation and decanting.

Schools and colleges are long-term anchors within their communities, but while there isn’t anything new about this, the pressure to deliver it all at once is.

In some areas, changing demographic and participation patterns are contributing to variations in estate utilisation, prompting new thinking around how space can be used. We’re seeing moves toward shared use, with potential for schools and colleges to work alongside family hubs, health services and community organisations to make better use of what already exists.

While this creates opportunity, it also introduces new layers of complexity, in which governance, management, and clear frameworks will be critical to making it work. This is where design plays an important role, helping buildings work beyond the classroom timetable to deliver everything the community needs without increasing complexity or cost.

We recognise that the education portfolio must remain flexible to respond to local need as they change over time. Our team takes a holistic approach, combining design, technical insight and a clear understanding of building functionality while prioritising early feasibility and meaningful stakeholder engagement.

We believe everyone has a role to play in shaping outcomes; by bringing people into the conversation early, we uncover opportunities, avoid unnecessary complexity, and create buildings that work well from day one.

At Rio, we have an established history of supporting many colleges and universities. For example, the NPTC Group of Colleges, as it continues to reshape one of its estates in Brecon, and align with its long-term commitment to the town centre and the Welsh Government’s Town Centre First policy.

At Brecon, this has meant rethinking how existing buildings can support modern education and wider community use. A series of historic Grade II Listed Buildings, including Watton Mount, its adjacent coach house and the former Ship Street Library, have been carefully adapted to create flexible teaching spaces while opening up new opportunities for public use.

Rather than a single campus, this approach creates a “college without walls”, a network of historic town-centre buildings sensitively restored and adapted for modern education. It shows how existing estates can evolve to meet changing needs, without losing their identity or adding unnecessary complexity.

In the journey to create an inspiring, accessible, and community-focused educational estate for NPTC Group of Colleges, we created a series of carefully balanced design strategies.

Our approach to adaptive re-purposing demonstrates that sustainable educational design can honour the past while meeting contemporary needs, set a benchmark for how heritage-led regeneration can redefine the future of learning environments, and deliver long-term value for students and communities.