Centre for Law and Social Sciences, Exeter College

Capacity exactly when the college needed it

Exeter College is the principal tertiary and state sixth form provider for the city of Exeter, and its student numbers have grown every year for 17 years. To meet rising demand for academic A Level pathways, the college made its largest investment in a new building: a £12m Centre for Law and Social Sciences on its Hele Road campus, replacing the former Baker Building.

Willmott Dixon delivered the 2,800sqm, four-storey, in-situ concrete-framed building through the SCAPE framework. It provides 25 new classrooms, breakout and study spaces for learners studying Geography, History, Law, Politics, Sociology and Psychology, and was officially opened by Lord Barber of Chittlehampton in June 2026.

Built on a long-standing partnership

The Centre for Law and Social Sciences was our second major building for Exeter College on its Hele Road campus. In summer 2021 we completed the college's Digital and Data Centre, a BREEAM Excellent-rated new-build facility supporting the South West Institute of Technology in delivering advanced digital and data skills. Delivered on time and on budget despite pandemic supply chain pressures, it features a triple-height atrium with a feature staircase, a lecture theatre, a ceramic rainscreen façade and curtain walling with bronze brise soleil for passive solar shading.

Returning to a campus we already knew – its estates team, its day-to-day operation and its constraints – meant the team could plan a safe live-site delivery from day one, and respond quickly when the college's needs changed mid-build.

A floor handed over 12 weeks early

Six months into construction, the college asked whether part of the building could open for September 2025, when around 750 additional 16–18 learners were due to arrive. Collaboration sessions with the college, architect AWW and our supply chain produced an agreed method and revised programme by Easter. One floor was independently commissioned, fire-separated from the ongoing works, signed off by building control and handed over 12 weeks early, with students using safe, segregated routes across a live site while the remaining three floors were completed.

What we delivered

• 25 new classrooms plus breakout, study and staff spaces across four storeys.
• A purpose-built moot room replicating a real courtroom for mock trials and debate.
• A central atrium with projecting meeting bays, lit by a bespoke stained-glass installation by local artist Amy McCarthy.
• A new home for fifteen Testament Sculptures by Devon artist Kenneth Carter, previously housed at Exeter Cathedral.
• A fabric-first envelope with roof-mounted photovoltaics, heat-recovery ventilation and a district heating connection.
• Sustainable drainage including an attenuation tank and bio-retention rain gardens.

Precision delivery on a live campus

Key supply chain partners joined the project from RIBA Stage 2, with "Build It in a Day" workshops shaping buildability and securing long-lead items early. BIM Level 2 coordination using Navisworks, Solibri and Dalux resolved clashes before work reached site, while laser scanning and a project-specific tolerance matrix controlled quality at complex interfaces. Fire service and delivery access for the whole campus was maintained throughout, and noisy works were planned around exam periods.

Designed for its setting – and for net zero

Designed by AWW, the building steps down the sloping site rather than cutting into it, reducing excavation and creating accessible routes between levels. Its fabric-first design achieved an EPC A rating and a 43% improvement on Part L, and the building has a BREEAM Excellent rating. Before construction began, 1,748 tonnes of inert demolition material from the Baker Building was diverted to a local farm for reuse, saving more than 45 tonnes of CO₂e.

Social value

88% of suppliers on the project were SMEs, and £6.1m was spent with businesses based in Devon and Somerset, generating £3.6m of local economic benefit measured using Social Value Portal proxies. The scheme also came full circle for former Exeter College learners: Charlotte Barons, one of the first students in the country to study a T Level in Construction and the Built Environment, returned to the campus as a trainee site manager on her Willmott Dixon degree apprenticeship, working alongside fellow alumnus Ed Grimshaw.

What people said:

When the college asked whether we could open part of the building 12 weeks early, the answer came from the whole team – college, designers and supply chain – working out together how to make it safe and deliverable. That is what a long-standing relationship makes possible. The result gave hundreds of extra learners somewhere to study last September, and a centre that will serve young people in Exeter for decades.”

Rob Woolcock, Director of Operations, Willmott Dixon