Supporting Wildlife Education at City of Bristol College

On World Wildlife Day, we’re highlighting a new specialist Animal Care facility at City of Bristol College, where construction is now more or less complete ahead of formal handover on 6th March.

The development provides four purpose-built animal enclosures, enabling students to gain hands-on experience caring for a range of species. The facility will house two colonies of meerkats, alongside ferrets and armadillos, creating a practical learning environment designed around both education and animal welfare. Particular care was taken with the enclosure layout, as meerkats are highly territorial and must be separated without direct sightlines between colonies.

The superstructure was designed and supplied by Fforest Timber Engineering, forming a timber-framed building with a prefabricated trussed roof. Skeletal’s role focused on the enabling structural and civil works — including the design of the raft foundation supporting the building and the external drainage strategy. Our scope included new foul and surface water drainage together with soakaway design to ensure appropriate and sustainable management of surface water across the site.

Design team: Studiolime Architects, John Perkins Construction (Main Contractor), J4 Projects (Project Managers), Smith Consult (MEP), and BITE (Animal Enrichment Consultants).