Dumfries & Galloway College, Dumfries and Stranraer

Oberlanders were appointed to lead a multi-disciplinary design team to develop a new STEM Teaching facilities for Dumfries & Galloway College at their campuses in Dumfries and Stranraer.

The project, funded by the South of Scotland Economic Partnership, has seen the creation of three new teaching hubs, providing sector leading facilities for the delivery of STEM subjects with close engagement between further education and industry, to a rural population base. Two hubs are located at Dumfries, one focusing on Care and the other on Renewable Technologies. One hub is located at Stranraer focusing on Engineering subjects.

Each project had unique and innovative requirements, including a dementia care training facility in the Care Hub, which involved a significant amount of client engagement, research and also very effective collaboration with colleagues from our healthcare team. There was also extensive use of renewable energy technologies in the Renewables Hub and state of the art vehicle engineering workshops at Stranraer, which required engagement with a number of industry partners.

The Hub at Stranraer is a bold, contemporary new extension within the main landscaped courtyard of the main campus.

The project team have provided the College with proactive support through this challenging project and have delivered buildings that significantly exceeded their initial aspirations