University of Bristol completes ‘landmark’ £500m Temple Quarter Campus

The University of Bristol has completed the main construction phase of its new £500 million Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus. Built next to bristol Temple Meads station, the development is a catalyst for the wider regeneration of Bristol Temple Quarter and is set to open for the September intake of students.

The 38,000 square metre building will provide space for up to 4,600 undergraduate and postgraduate students alongside 650 staff. Over the next four months, the building will move into its final phase in making finishing touches and moving furniture, equipment and people into the building.

The University of Bristol says the campus will be a home for ‘world-class teaching and research across business, innovation, digital engineering, artificial intelligence, quantum and more’, with close ties to industry and civic partners. It will operate alongside the Bristol Innovations Zone, a space designed to be a hub for start-ups and scale-ups to collaborate with researchers from the University’s faculties

The campus represents one of the city’s most significant urban regeneration projects in recent years. The university bought the land from Bristol City Council in 2017, demolishing the Royal Mail Sorting office that filled the site in 2019. Mayor of the West of England, Helen Godwin, noted that the old Royal Mail building had once been referred to as “the chipped tooth in the city’s smile,” describing the project as “a big step toward unlocking the wider potential of Bristol Temple Quarter and thousands more new jobs and new homes for our region”.

The campus will also supply additional transport links in the area. It will open alongside a new eastern entrance to Bristol Temple Meads, connecting to the campus via a new public space called University Square. A new harbour walkway, funded by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority, will run from University Square to Temple Quary, providing new walking and cycling routes alongside new green public spaces. 

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Sustainability has been at the core of the project’s ethos, designed to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating with its connection to a district heating network to reduce energy demand and carbon emissions. 

Construction has drawn heavily from the local economy, with more than half its workforce being locally employed and sourced from local suppliers. The project has also enabled 3.940 training weeks, 68 on-site work experience placements and supported over 3,500 weeks of in-work training for over 100 apprentices.

Craig Allen, Sector Managing Director, Industrial, Sir Robert McAlpine, said the project has “generated meaningful social value throughout delivery” from its “lower-carbon construction methods and sustainable design to the investment in skills, apprenticeships and local employment”. 

Professor Judith Squires, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Bristol, said the milestone marks a step toward “a vibrant new connected campus in the heart of the city,” adding she looks forward to “welcoming students, innovation and community partners and staff to join us in our new campus in September”.

All images via the University of Bristol