A INNOVATIVE new £20m building at the heart of a brand new campus centre has been unveiled at Teesside University.

The new teaching centre, The Curve, is to be found at the new, environmentally friendly, green space on the newly pedestrianised Southfield Road and it means the amount of money invested at the university in the last ten years to more than quarter of a billion pounds.

The most recent investment at the Middlesbrough university is the area called the Campus Heart which includes:

*A £6m refurbishment of the science and engineering facilities at the Orion and Stephenson buildings. The enlarged Orion building includes includes a three storey glass extension enabling passers-by to see the latest technologies with new equipment and facilities such as a jet engine testing lab, flight simulator, full size aircraft and a mock power plant.

*A 'living wall' - or vertical garden - which includes a giant LED screen on the rear of the Student Centre

*A £2.5m extension of the Olympia Building to provide a brand new health and fitness centre, which is due to open in January.

*Extensive landscaping and paving along Southfield Road

A further £10m has been earmarked to make additional improvements to the nearby library, Students’ Union and catering across campus and further expansions to the university in Darlington is expected in the coming years.

However, the flagship building in the latest development is The Curve which boasts social learning spaces, multi-purpose areas for reception, events and exhibitions, general purpose teaching rooms and a large auditorium lecture theatre. Cool air is taken from underground and pumped around the building in an innovative, environmentally friendly form of air conditioning.

The university, which has launched 60 new courses this year, is also investing in new halls of residence.

Professor Paul Croney, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Teesside University since May this year, explained that the college had decided to invest increased revenue money from student fees directly into improving the campus and teaching facilities. Other money had come from the university's enterprises, including corporate training and business advice programmes.

Professor Croney, who said the university hoped to expand further in the coming years, said: "It's about vision and aspiration for Teesside. We wanted a real campus feel. It was about better teaching facilities, and about improving student experience...We wanted to put the increased student revenue directly back into the student experience."

Teesside University began life 85 years ago as a technical college on Borough Road before becoming a polytechnic and then a university in 1992 when it had 8,000 students. It now has 20,000 students and employs 2,000 staff.