Creative student’s 360 tour of new school space

Creative media students from Ron Dearing UTC have created a first of its kind 360 tour of their new school expansion at the former Central Fire Station to show employer partners, stakeholders, students and parents just how the building is progressing before it opens its doors in September 2023.

Year 13 student, Harvey Shaw worked with the Sewell Construction site team to plan the virtual tour of the building and film it using a state of the art 360 camera, which gives viewers an all-round view of the project. The final film has now been shared along with a Google cardboard headset so people can get a feel for the building.

Harvey said: “It was a great experience to work with the site team to see how construction and digital technology work hand in hand and how we can use techniques such as 360 filming to bring a space to life and get people excited about our new building.”

Harvey interviewed Project Manager, Dave Major on the tour round the site to find out more about the project and how it’s meeting the UTC’s decarbonisation ambitions. Dave said: “Throughout this project we’ve worked alongside Ron Dearing UTC and Esteem to design and create a building that will provide a fantastic learning space for students, as well as demonstrating the energy efficient measures we can introduce to the remodelling of an old building.

“The Fire Station has an incredible heritage, dating back to 1927, and to see the students engaging with the environment in new and exciting digital ways is very rewarding for us as a team.

“The virtual tour that Harvey has created provides a gateway for people to see what’s happening on site without having to enter the live construction environment, so we hope it sparks the interest of more young people to see how construction and digital technology work together.”

The 360 virtual tour follows a series of student engagement projects between Sewell Construction and Ron Dearing UTC, including a recent augmented reality tour of the building, when students had the chance to don headsets and see their new school come to life before their eyes.

The employer-led Hull school has been oversubscribed every year since it opened its doors in 2017. Following significant funding from the Department for Education (DfE), it is increasing student places from 600 to 800 to meet growing demand.

The renovation and repurposing of the former Central Fire Station next door to the school will house a “smart” exhibition centre which will be used by students and the UTC’s employer partners to showcase low carbon technologies and lead the green revolution across the region. It will also double up as a creative exhibition space to host artists in residence, art exhibitions, arts markets and community arts projects.

The first and second floors will be home to STEAM Studios, which will provide the UTC’s fast-growing creative specialism with three first class art and design studios, a ceramics room, printmaking facilities and two high-tech digital labs. Floor one will also house a new Sixth Form Centre.

The project is being carried out with a strong emphasis on sustainable construction practises, making use of green technologies to bring the former fire station back to life and ensure it is transformed into a vibrant, low carbon building.

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG7zmZbREno