Morgan Ashurst has won a £4.5 million contract to build the eco-friendly Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) for Lancaster University in Bailrigg, Lancaster.

It is one of the first higher education buildings in the UK aiming to achieve the 2009 BREAAM HE rating of Outstanding.

Morgan Ashurst will use off-site construction techniques to build a 3,000m² timber-frame building which will provide a new arts hub for four academic groups; Art, Design, Music and Theatre Studies; as well as the university's public arts facilities. It will also accommodate the research group Imagination@Lancaster.

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The centre will house three inter-linked arts performance 'event spaces', studios for installations and design, acoustic rooms, imagination laboratories and rooms for post-graduate research and administration.

In order to achieve the BREEAM rating of Outstanding, Morgan Ashurst must demonstrate that it has chosen the most sustainable option in almost every aspect of construction.

The architect is Sheppard Robson, the mechanical and electrical engineers are Hoare Lea and Partners and the structural engineer is Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM). Project management is being undertaken by Christal Management.

The contract is due to be completed in June 2010.

(CD/KMcA)