Higher & Further Education
The Cavendish Buildiing, University of Derby
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The Cavendish Building, University of Derby
Located at the junction of Agard Street and Ford Street, the building establishes a strong architectural gateway into Derby city centre. It also forms a direct relationship with the nearby University-owned One Friar Gate Square, reinforcing the University’s urban footprint and creating the foundation for future academic zones linking the city centre with its Markeaton Street site.
The Cavendish Building delivers close to 10,000 m² of specialist academic, social, and professional space, designed to support next-generation teaching, learning, and enterprise. The facility brings together:
- A 300+ seat lecture theatre
- Harvard-style teaching theatre
- PC labs and trading room
- Virtual reality suite
- Specialist classrooms
- Business start-up and enterprise spaces
- Staff offices and meeting suites
- A vibrant ground-floor café and social hub
These spaces are designed to support collaboration between students, staff, start-ups, and local businesses, enhancing the University’s role in driving innovation across Derby and the wider D2N2 region.
Architectural Approach
Stride Treglown’s design defines the building’s identity through precast concrete cladding, giving the structure a sense of permanence and civic presence. Carefully considered chamfers and angular geometries articulate the façades, catching light throughout the day to create a dynamic visual effect.
Internally, a dramatic central atrium acts as the heart of the building, drawing natural daylight deep into the plan, supporting intuitive wayfinding, and creating a central point of connection across floors, faculties, and user groups.
Every element of the design supports flexibility, collaboration, and future growth, reflecting the University’s long-term academic ambitions. CPMG played a key role in supporting Kier in the design development and delivery of this building, ensuring that the design vision was realised to the highest standard.
University Needs, Vision and Aspirations
With around 29,000 students and ambitions for significant growth over the next decade, the University required a new building to expand teaching capacity while elevating its city-centre presence. The Cavendish Building responds to several core strategic drivers:
- Strengthening competitiveness - Delivering a distinctive, future-ready academic environment that attracts students domestically and internationally.
- Evolving student expectations - Providing flexible, high-quality spaces that support new ways of learning, studying, and collaborating.
- Enhancing industry engagement - Creating a welcoming interface between academia and the regional business community.
- Driving research, innovation, and enterprise - Integrating theory and practice to support teaching excellence and commercial opportunity.
- Responding to industry skills demands - Supporting new programme development and a stronger pipeline of graduate talent.
- Integrating technological advancement - Embedding modern digital tools and environments to support cutting-edge teaching and recruitment.
Sustainability and Net Zero Ambition
The University’s sustainability strategies informed the building’s design and delivery, with an overarching ambition for net zero carbon in construction and operation. Material choices, energy strategies, and future-proofing measures were all guided by this ambition, ensuring the building supports the University’s long-term environmental commitments.
The building features passive low-energy measures including a high-performance façade achieving very high air-tightness and thermal properties, thermally massive construction to regulate internal temperatures, and optimised natural daylighting throughout. In addition, air-source heat pumps provide fossil-fuel-free space and water heating, heat recovery ventilation minimises heat losses in winter, and rooftop photovoltaics contribute on-site renewable electricity. Green walls and natural planting animate both the external facades and the internal atrium space, improving air quality and enhancing wellbeing.
In addition, detailed embodied carbon analysis supported sustainable material specifications and underpinned key design decisions.
Delivering almost 10,000 m² of specialist space in a prominent city-centre location, the Cavendish Building establishes a confident architectural presence while providing a modern, flexible environment for learning, research, and enterprise.
