Leeds Trinity University City Campus

Written by Clare Ailward Regional Director, Manchester

This transformative refurbishment, of a former seven storey office, into a city centre campus, exemplifies sustainable innovation and educational impact. Delivered through close collaboration with stakeholders, the project provides an all-electric, low-carbon facility designed for adaptability, inclusivity, and wellbeing. Flexible, technology-rich environments support hybrid and specialist learning, while community-facing spaces and enhanced accessibility strengthen engagement across the university and beyond.

Leeds Trinity University identified key opportunities for academic growth in subject areas including Business, Computing, Law, Criminology, and the Built Environment. Establishing a city centre presence allows the University to broaden its academic offer and create stronger links with industry partners - enabling students and staff to engage in real-world learning experiences that enrich their understanding and application of these disciplines.

The City Campus welcomes students through a striking double-height entrance featuring reception, breakout, and café spaces. Large glazed partitions allow natural light to flood the interior, creating visual connections across floors and encouraging transparency and collaboration. The interior is intentionally flexible and highly utilised, supporting a wide range of learning styles with IT-rich open-plan learning zones, quiet study areas, enclosed teaching rooms, and specialist facilities including a trading room, global classroom, law court, custody suite, and business engagement spaces.

“The opening of our City Campus represents the most significant change in the University’s history – and the most exciting opportunity for Leeds Trinity, its students and its partners. It provides a new space for stakeholders to come together to deliver applied and transformative learning and development opportunities; to connect deeply to support the Leeds agenda to deliver inclusive growth which benefits all communities; and to collaborative problem-solve, to address societal issues and create impact.”

Professor Catherine O’Connor, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Experience at Leeds Trinity University

Sector(s)

  • Higher Education

Value
£11m

Client(s)
Leeds Trinity University

Location
Leeds

In-use

The campus is designed to deliver a high-quality, face-to-face learning experience while fully enabling hybrid teaching models. All teaching spaces support live streaming and virtual guest participation, and a global classroom facility allows students and educators worldwide to collaborate through advanced technology.

Flexible room configurations, including double and triple-sized spaces achieved with movable walls, accommodate a wide range of group sizes and teaching formats whilst maximising utilisation.

Sustainability was a key priority for the University, resulting in the building achieving BREEAM Excellent certification through multiple initiatives.

Previously heated by gas-fired boilers, the building is now fully electric, using heat pumps and VRF systems for heating and cooling. Inefficient natural ventilation has been replaced with high-efficiency mechanical ventilation and heat recovery. CO₂-controlled demand ventilation ensures optimal fresh air delivery to individual spaces. Throughout, T5 fluorescent lighting has been replaced with high-efficiency LED lighting, featuring automatic dimming and occupancy control.

The Team

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