New educational facility opens at YMCA Lakeside

The £6.8m Stoller Campus is an eco-friendly building, offering increased and higher quality accommodation

Posted by Julian Owen | September 12, 2019 | Bricks & mortar

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• #stoller-campus

Last month saw the culmination of a major redevelopment project at one the UK’s largest outdoor education centres, YMCA Lakeside. 

Now open to the public following seven years of work, the Stoller Campus is a £6.8m state-of-the-art school and youth centre situated on the banks of Lake Windermere.  

With the centre already offering more than 50 outdoor water and land-based activities, it is hoped that the increased – and higher quality – accommodation will change lives by “ensuring a more stimulating and inspiring place for young people to learn”.  

It is more than 60 years since YMCA Lakeside first opened its doors, and has since welcomed more than a million young people previously unable to benefit from spending time in the great outdoors. 

The new addition is an eco-friendly building incorporating high-tech entrances, sophisticated security access, ensuite dormitory rooms, and drying rooms for boots and outdoor gear. Architecturally, the building is designed to fully blend into the landscape, minimising the visual impact on the adjacent lake.  

Lancashire-based architecture, town planning and building surveying practice, Cassidy + Ashton, acted as lead consultant.  

“We were delighted to be involved in this very exciting project at the heart of the iconic World Heritage Site, said the firm’s chairman, Alistair Baines. 

“We fully appreciate the importance of this facility to the YMCA going forward, and are proud to be involved in helping to deliver a significant development of the Lakeside centre that will undoubtedly provide long term, sustainable facilities for the trust.”