New Build Campus Student Phased Accommodation with Pavilion amenities building. 648 student beds arranged in clusters and 4 storey town houses The Meadows site is situated in the southern corner of the Essex ‘Knowledge Gateway’, a new extension of the University’s Colchester campus. The design creates a sense of place and identity, forming a ‘Student Village’ with landscaped courtyards edged by the new buildings. New residences comprise larger apartment-style buildings of between four and seven storeys facing open grass land to the south and ‘Townhouse’ rows; domestic scale street-facing terraces. To mitigate what might otherwise be a monolithic external elevation, a sense of vitality was introduced through the creative use of colour-blending across the facade, an architectural motif that continues around the site perimeter, extending across the terraced townhouses and creating a seemingly random interplay of stripes across the glazed wall of the pavilion’s elevated common room, capturing in one location the same ‘colour wheel’ that is played out around the site. Understanding the Masterplan Design Guide and the earlier Urban Design Framework from an early stage in designing the proposed development has been essential. Of particular interest have been the various public spaces or ‘activity nodes’ foreseen as part of the wider development, since these have the potential to enhance the journey made by students passing through or alongside the site. Construction began in April 2012, and was ready for occupation for September and the 2013/14 academic year.