South West College Erne Campus

It has been Albert Fry Associates’ pleasure to provide civil and structural engineering consultancy services to Tracey Brothers Ltd who were appointed by South West College to both design and build their new 8,200m2, £20m Erne Campus on the site of the former Erne Hospital in Enniskillen, replacing their existing facilities at Gaol Square. The campus was officially opened by SWC’s Chief Executive, Mr Michael McAlister on September, 2021.

The Passive House Institute in Germany has confirmed that SWC is the world’s first educational and currently the largest Passive House Premium rated building. SWC’s Erne Campus is also the first building in the UK to achieve both Passive House Premium and BREEAM Outstanding accreditations. With extraordinary levels of insulation and airtightness combined with 2700m of triple glazed curtain walling, 3,200m2 of roof mounted solar panels and 869m2 of buried earth pipes providing free cooling, the building has been proven to be 90% more energy efficient that SWC’s previous campus.

The building’s structure itself, in sympathy with the existing land contours, diminishes from east to west from four to two storeys height with a pin jointed steel frame supporting precast concrete flooring units all stabilised by in-situ concrete lift and stair cores. Stringent restrictions apply in terms of the quality and rate of discharge of storm water to the adjacent Lough Erne resulting in the design of innovative SUDS solutions.

project details