BOURNEMOUTH University (BU) is preparing to submit plans for a £38 million building for science and technology students, which would be situated next to its ‘Poole Gateway’ development currently under construction on the Talbot Campus.

The university is embarking on the second phase of its plans for its estate, which will involve a £100m investment over five years, up to 2025.

The second Poole Gateway building would be five storeys high and approximately 7,500sqm and feature computing and psychology laboratories, a new lecture theatre, seminar rooms, and research facilities. The building would enable BU to bring disciplines that are currently split across Talbot and Lansdowne campuses under one roof.

An exhibition of the proposals for staff and students is due to take place on June 12, and a planning application is set to be submitted to BCP Council late summer.

Work on the four-storey development next to the Boundary Roundabout in Poole is due to be completed in spring 2020.

This is the third of three  ‘gateway’ buildings currently under construction or in planning.

With a Bournemouth building for the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences based next to the St Paul’s Roundabout on the Wessex Way.

The first building in Poole will provide facilities for TV production, audio studios, sound editing labs, and a green screen with a motion capture suite.

The proposed science and technology building would “deliver high quality facilities that support undergraduate and postgraduate courses”, BU says.

“There will also be flexible facilities, enabling collaboration between subject areas, helping to bring colleagues and students together and drive research forward.”

A newsletter about the plans, which has been sent to local residents, states the “Poole Gateway Building Phase 2 will be a new home for modern facilities to deliver world-class teaching and research within the Faculty of Science and Technology”.

The building would “complement the Poole Gateway building, providing a striking gateway to the university campus” and “be sustainable and of a high quality environmental standard, including photovoltaic solar panels, rainwater harvesting and highly efficient heating and cooling systems”.

A row of mature trees are currently proposed to help screen the building and “minimise impact on surrounding properties around Gillett Road and Talbot Woods”.

Bournemouth University has been investing millions of pounds to improve facilities since 2012. Its Bournemouth Gateway building will stand alongside a number of developments such as a 14-storey building housing accommodation for 550 students and another block of 403 bedrooms, Belaton House, on the former American Golf site at Holdenhurst Road.