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Thumbs up to £10m new campus showpiece

It was thumbs-up today from three of the first students to see inside the University of º£½ÇÖ±²¥â€™s brand new new Athena Centre for Creative Technologies.

The £10m new building for art, media, design and computing students is on the site of the former YMCA on the corner of Southfield Road and Woodlands Road, Middlesbrough. Inside are 4,000 square metres of studio space for teaching and learning across a range of areas of digital technology and media enabling the University to build on its reputation for excellence in areas such as computer animation, games development, design and digital media.

David Collinson, Deborah Matthews and Ingrid Elin Dahl-Olsen are among the first students who will be taught in the building and enjoy its new facilities.

David, 19, from Bishop Auckland, is a second year student on the BA (Hons) Graphic Design. He also receives a scholarship worth £3,000 in total, awarded by the University to students who have achieved 300 UCAS tariff points. He said: ‘I’m looking forward to studying in the building. The University has spent a lot of time and effort to make the building the best level it can be.’

Deborah, 21, from Fife in Scotland, is about to start the final year of her BSc (Hons) Computer Studies. She said: ‘The building’s got a nice atmosphere; it looks large, modern and kind of chic. A lot of money and effort’s gone into the design.’

Ingrid, 25, from Norway, has already achieved a BA (Hons) Digital Character Animation from the University and is about to start an MA Computer Animation. She said: ‘If the building looks as good on the inside as it does on the outside it will be very good. It has lots of resources.’

Facilities inside the Athena building include state-of-the-art design studios, an experimental workshop, a newsroom, broadcast news studios and multimedia publishing studios and workshops. There will also be new suites for 2-D and 3-D computer animation, computer games art, design and programming, visualisation, graphics programming and digital music, and gallery space for exhibitions at the entrance.

Athena was designed by CPMG Architects, whose group director Nick Gregory said: ‘The building has been designed to make an eye-catching statement about the visually inspirational work carried out within. The building is a dramatic demonstration, both to those within the university and those in the wider community, acting as a shop window and providing tantalising views of the stimulating environment within. Passers-by will be left in no doubt what the building represents.’

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