Derbyshire firm Wildgoose Construction has started work on a state-of-the-art £3.5m college building which will incorporate the latest environmental technologies.

A ground-breaking ceremony has been held on the site of what will become the Foster Centre at South Staffordshire College's Rodbaston campus.

The building will incorporate classrooms, a large refectory with an outdoor terrace, catering kitchen and shop.

It is intended that the centre will be used by students but will also be available to other groups for gatherings and social activities.

The Ashover-based business will be using the latest environmentally friendly technologies and practices in the building.

These will include:

• Heating powered by a bio-mass (wood chip) boiler, using locally sourced wood chip pellets.

• The heating and ventilation strategy uses the exposed concrete first floor and roof slabs to provide thermal mass which helps to balance out the effect of night time cooling.

• Designed to achieve a BREEAM rating of excellent.

• A rainwater harvesting system will provide recycled water for flushing toilets.

• The building will also house energy dashboards displaying energy consumption data which students and visitors will have access to.

• Externally the courtyard will be landscaped and provide a terrace and gardens with WIFI capability, rainwater harvesting is also being utilised to create a pond and increase biodiversity on the site.

• The external cladding comprises two main materials;

Thermowood cladding. This is natural pine which is heated to extremely high temperatures to dry out all residual moisture and sap. Thermowood is extremely durable, providing a 30 year expected lifespan without the need for any chemical treatment.

Stone filled wire mesh gabions will form the rain screen cladding at ground floor level. The college intend to plant the small voids between the stone filling with small alpines and mosses to form a 'living wall'.

The centre will have a full-length glazed atrium, providing a large open circulation space on the ground floor.  

Large acoustic panels suspended from the atrium roof will keep sound reverberation in the atrium area to within acceptable levels.

The landscape design will incorporate a sheltered garden area which includes several plots available for student planting as part of their college studies.

There will also be a large ornamental water feature which will take the form of a shallow 'rill' with a weir overflow into a larger, deeper pool.  

The rill will have a bed of ornamental boulders, and the pool will incorporate reed planting at the shoreline.   

A walkway to the building will cross over the water feature by a footbridge.  The water feature will incorporate a pump installation to continually circulate water from the pond back into the rill, to provide a constant movement of water over the weir.

The centre is due to open in September 2011.

Tim Walker, managing director of Wildgoose, said the company was delighted to be working on the Rodbaston campus.

He said: "'This will be a most unusual and visually innovative mixed use building. The heat treated timber cladding will sit above stone gabions which will be used to create a living wall of alpine plants. 

"The large central atrium creates a light corridor throughout the building and will separate the educational and refectory areas on either side.

"As an innovative and environmentally aware contractor, we are delighted to be working with such a visionary client and design team, delivering a building which will be inspirational for both the students and teaching staff."

Graham Morley, chief executive principal at the college, said he was excited at the prospect of the new building.

He said: "South Staffordshire College is determined to invest in world class low carbon buildings and facilities for the communities it serves. 

"This building is the start of this journey. Everyone will benefit from this investment - our teachers and our learners who come from far and wide including those from Staffordshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire and the West Midlands. 

"This investment confirms the college's long term commitment to land-based education and training."

*BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) is the leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the measure used to describe a building's environmental performance.