A former bicycle factory site has become an academic park for the University’s expanding faculties and student residences, using energy-saving design and construction to balance communal, functional and operational priorities. The University of Nottingham is proud of its architectural heritage. When it acquired a six hectare industrial site it decided to develop a campus suitable for its Centennial Jubilee. Our competition-winning design created a lake along the site. The principal buildings, three faculties, a learning resource centre and a central teaching building overlook the lake along a path leading to the University’s playing fields and original campus. There are also 850 student rooms in five halls. Colonnades on the pathside buildings engage pedestrians and invite them to look into the gardens and atria between the finger-like wings. Ground floors accommodate functions like catering, shops and meeting; above are faculty rooms. The unusual shapes of the free-standing circular learning resource centre and conical lecture halls which appear to float in the atrium of the central teaching building, proclaim their importance. Halls of residence have more privacy; those for undergraduates adopt a traditional courtyard layout, while the postgraduate residence is crescent-shaped. A low pressure drop ventilation system uses corridors and stair towers as air plenums, reducing the energy needed to circulate air. Under normal conditions specially-designed chimneys create adequate wind effect; during hot weather photo-voltaic cells on the atrium roofs generate supplementary power for extra cooling. Such ideas attracted the largest ever Thermie Grant from the European Union, allowing a small premium above the stringent cost guidelines for academic buildings, and ensuring that the new campus is a worthy companion to the original one.