Construction is ongoing at NMITE’s Centre for Innovation and Future Skills with base plates installed and the timber frame recently erected. Due to be opened in Spring 2026, this is a significant milestone in the construction of the building which is located on NMITE’s Blackfriars Campus.
The new centre will include 180sqm of new space and will renovate 90sq m of an unused part of the existing Edwardian building. A hybrid glulam beam made from UK grown timber was installed as part of a project led by NMITE’s Centre for Advanced Timber Technology (CATT) with Edinburgh Napier University on Building from England’s Woodland. The project aims to demonstrate the viability of English grown timber in modern construction methods. Drones will be used to capture overhead footage of this stage of the build with timelapse from the camera already mounted on-site.
Wojciech Plowas, Structural Timber Design & Analysis Consultant from The Institute for Sustainable Construction at Edinburgh Napier University said: “The incorporation of the UK grown softwood and hardwood combined glue laminated timber beam in the NMITE Skills Hub coincides with the launch of the Mass Timber Centre of Excellence at BE-ST where it was manufactured by Eco-Systems Technologies. Napier in collaboration with BE-ST, Eco-Systems, dRMM Architects and NMITE have shown in the Forestry Commission England funded Building from England’s Woodlands how re-engineering and optimising UK resource is ready to play a bigger role in the sector. The beam is a showcase of this capability”
James Newby, NMITE CEO added: “We’re thrilled to see the centre coming to life, delivering on NMITE’s mission to deliver economic benefit to Herefordshire and revolutionise upskilling in the local area. Once built, it will become home to NMITE’s Innovation Support Programme, delivered in partnership with Innovate UK, and will be the venue for our annual Future of Work Conference.”
The centre has been designed by local firm Arbor Architects and will be brought to life by local timber construction company, Firth Construction, with other members of the team including project management firm Greenwood Projects, mechanical and electrical designers VIDA, structural designers Giraffe Engineering, landscape designers Seed Landscape Design and glulam manufacturer Buckland Timber.
Backed by over £2million in capital funding from the Government’s Towns Fund, the Centre for Innovation and Skills is a core element of the broader Stronger Hereford programme – an initiative to make Hereford a better place to live, learn, work and visit.
