Following planning approval in December 2020 we are pleased to announce that ISG will build the £17.5m research centre, the National Brownfield Institute (NBI) for the University of Wolverhampton at its £120m Springfield Campus.

The NBI will provide the facility to develop modern methods of building through innovation and partnership with the construction industry, focusing on the practical application of future brownfield regeneration through the work of research teams, policy development and commercial services.

The scheme has benefited from £14.9m of funding from the government’s Get Building Fund for the West Midlands. City of Wolverhampton Council worked with the Black Country LEP and West Midlands Combined Authority to secure the funding.

The 12-acre Springfield Campus is already home to the £45m School of Architecture and Built Environment and the Thomas Telford University Technical College, both designed by Associated Architects.

As with the rest of the Springfield campus, the land was formerly part of the Mitchells & Butlers brewery, before becoming subject to decline and dereliction before plans to revitalise the area were set in motion.

It is apt that the NBI be built at the Springfield site as it is itself a brownfield plot, covered with loose aggregate hard-standing following site infrastructure works.

The design for the NBI has developed through an iterative processes, in response to a much evolving and refining set of briefing requirements. A range of consultation and engagement has taken plan with a variety of University stakeholders, representing various interests.