The bustling town-centre campus of Blackburn College caters for a wide cross-section of students with a portfolio of courses, which range from GCSE and A Levels to higher education including degree and post-graduate qualifications accredited by a number of universities.
Founded in 1888 as the town's technical college, the original focus was on the economic drivers of the area at that time, namely, textiles and engineering. Today, Blackburn College is the largest education provider in East Lancashire, with over 25,000 full and part-time students.
It was for the 16 to 20 year-old age group that the College's Buildings and Estates Department recently refurbished part of the Blakey Moor Centre to create an 'Interactive Common Room' – probably one of the first leisure spaces of its kind to be created within the sector in Britain with MTV Channel broadcast live, games machines, and six listening posts with a choice of CDs being played through head-phones.
"Our aim was to get in touch with what students in that age group would expect of a leisure environment," said the Department's Project Manager, Karl Faulkner. "We felt that a nightclub design would be the perfect vehicle to create a bright, lively and appealing area."
The project was very much a prototype with the intention of rolling out the concept in other areas of the campus if it was successful. Karl co-ordinated the various activities involved in
transforming what was formerly a teaching area for business and hospitality management courses into a modern, vibrant leisure space.
The walls were painted in a rag-roll 'brain cell' effect with stunning fantasy art across one entire wall. High frequency multi-coloured spotlights were installed together with blue and white strip lights. Large amounts of natural light streaming into the room in daylight hours was used to highlight a dramatic, bubbling water feature next to one of the windows.
All the old polymer flooring tiles were stripped out and Amtico installed in their place. Diagonal patterns of metallic grey Marcasite were used with the 'Techno' Zinc Stud design as a border.
Karl Faulkner was already familiar with Amtico, so this project provided an exciting pportunity to discover how the company's latest designs would fit in with the nightclub concept: "Amtico's innovative aesthetic qualities gave us a variety of options to achieve the effects we wanted," said Karl. "In a busy student common room we also had to consider durability and ease of maintenance. For sheer performance and functionality, I have to say that Amtico just cannot be beaten!"
Such has been the success of the 'Interactive Common Room’; there are plans for a similar project aimed at more mature students in higher education. The theme might be slightly more muted, but the idea of a 'total entertainment' space will follow the original concept.
Design: In-House
Amtico Products: MR30 Marcasite with DP38 Zinc Stud Stripping
Contractor: Leo’s Carpets