Construction is to start next month on the University of Birmingham’s new £55m red brick and copper-clad sports centre on its Edgbaston campus.

Designed by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, the university hopes the 13,200sq m (142,083sq ft) sports development will reaffirm its status as one of the UK’s leading institutions for sport and nurture the next generation of Olympic talent.

The new sports centre, which is being built on a former car park on the Bristol Road, will include the city’s only 50m swimming pool, a triple sports hall intended to accommodate major national sporting events and a Wellbeing and High Performance research centre.

There will also be a hybrid gym catering for activities such as fencing, table tennis, martial arts, circuit training and fitness classes, as well as squash courts, an indoor climbing wall and dance studios.

"Birmingham is a city with a proud sporting heritage and sport plays a huge part in the life of our campus,” said the university’s director of sport Zena Wooldridge.

“The new sports centre will provide fitting facilities for the a top-three ranked sporting university."

The facility will be run the university’s UB Sport – which also runs the current sports centre is expected to be operational by the end of 2015.