Flexibility for the future
At the moment, our on-site accommodation (the Carter block) is old, dormitory-style and only suitable for our single students. We welcome students with spouses and children (we even have our own nursery!), but currently they can only live off-site in one of our houses in Bristol.
This has its benefits, and we intend to keep the same arrangement for now, but we want our new housing to be more adaptable; able to meet the college’s needs whatever our student demographic looks like in years to come. The buildings will have a flexible layout, so they could be used by single students, guests, groups or families in the future.
We also need much better accessibility. We plan for our new student village to be accessible by default, including wheelchair access and hearing loops, so that any student can enjoy living in the campus community.
Another thing we’ve been able to do is to offer our accommodation, when it’s standing empty, to people in need in the city. We’ve been working with local partners like Bristol Hospitality Network to house asylum seekers where we can, both off and on site, and have loved welcoming them into this special community.
There is a growing housing crisis in Bristol and our desire is not to buy up more properties to house our students in the city, but to build our own sustainable accommodation that we can share when we have opportunity.