University of Gloucestershire City Campus – ADC

The former department store is now home to the University of Gloucestershire’s education, psychology, and social work programmes, providing a base in Kings Square in the city centre for teaching, learning and community services. 

“The project is more than a retrofit, it’s a bold statement about the future of our cities, where underused retail spaces can be reborn as engines of education, community, and renewal,” said Natalia Lopez, associate director at ADP. “This is architecture as urban repair, reactivating the high street, creating opportunity, and showing what’s possible when big-box retail buildings are reimagined for public good. It’s a model for regeneration everywhere.”

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The building envelope has been entirely upgraded, despite much of the original material being retained, preserving the embodied carbon while adapting the building to become flexible educational and civic spaces. Adaptation work was complicated by the layered, historic nature of the building, with sections dating across the 1900s, 1930s and 1950s – which required an intricate and sensitive retrofit process.

Upgrading the building’s thermal envelope also brought it up to contemporary energy standards, aided by the integration of new heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting systems, and air sourced heat pumps throughout. Converting the building from retail to educational use also required upgrading fire safety regulations.

ADP worked closely with a conservation officer to retain the original features of the building, such as the restoration of the leaded tracery from the original shop windows. Internal floor plates were re-carved to open up the internal spaces to a series of light wells, creating a ribbon of balconies across the floors – an upgrade not only brings natural light into study spaces but assists with way-finding, which is emphasised through a vibrant colour and textile palette.