Case studies

Innovative architecture for

innovative schools
Ashburton Learning Village
space which is useable as breakout and
ancillary
teaching area, and can be opened up to
classrooms
for open plan pedagogy.
The street is a triple height space with
sinuous
galleries and is topped by a large
photovoltaic array connected to displays
that are monitored by the students.
CLIENT Croydon Council
ARCHITECT Penoyre & Prasad LLP
COST 18M
This pioneering extended school
combines a local
library and secondary school as well as
housing the
Croydon Music Service, the Continuing
Education
and Training Service, and community
sports facilities.
The library has seen attendance rise and
vandalism
decline, while the school reports improved
behaviour
and sense of purpose.
The design is based on a street typology
with the
major spaces on one side and fingers of
general and
specialist classrooms on the other. Instead
of the usual
corridors the classrooms opens off a
tapering common
Currently working
for HCC
There are those
clusters again!
Academy of St Francis of Assisi
CLIENT Roman Catholic
Archdiocese and Church
of England Diocese of Liverpool
ARCHITECT Capita Percy Thomas
COST 17M
The Academy of St Francis of Assisi
in Liverpool has
topped the latest government league
tables as the secondary school
that has done the most to
improve its pupils education
between the ages of 11 and 16.
The 900-place Academy, which
opened its doors to pupils in
September 2005, is the first of
the governments flagship
Academies to specialise in the
environment.
The project brief stressed the need
for a landmark
building that championed best
practice in environmental
design and offered itself as an
educational resource
wherever possible. Environmental
strategies were to
be clearly evident to pupils and staff,
and could be
monitored and interacted with as part
of the curriculum.
Environmental features include solar
control
and passive solar measures
(including a four-storey
solar atrium glazed with ETFE
cushions), thermal
massing, natural lighting and
ventilation, super- insulation,
photovoltaics and rainwater
harvesting. A combination of
sedum and brown roofs have
been seeded with
an indigenous wildflower mix,
working in liaison with
the National Wildflower Centre in
Liverpool and are
inhabited by a variety of bird species.
Ground floor plan
Bridge Academy
CLIENT DfES & UBS Investment Bank
ARCHITECT & LANDSCAPE
ARCHITECT BDP
MAIN CONTRACTOR Mace Plus
COST 27m
This academy for 1,150 pupils is situated
on an inner city brownfield site, in the
heart of a multi-ethnic community. Sited
for a localised pupil base, the school is
accessible for community use out of
school hours and acts as a regenerator for
an area which has suffered neglect in
recent times.
The constrained site along the Regents
Canal has driven the design of an
innovative vertical school where each roof
space offers useful learning spaces. The
school buildings are split into three
elements: the sound shell wraps teaching
spaces around the social heart of the
school; the sports hall, which is set into
the ground; and the music box which sits
at the edge of the canal providing teaching
space and a 450-seat concert hall. These
elements are unified through multilevel
landscape, where garden terrace, sports
terrace and hanging garden act as social
gathering spaces, taking performance and
learning outdoors.
The building has been designed to minimise
energy
use by maximising daylight to the teaching
spaces. From
two sides of the classroom the school is
predominantly
naturally ventilated, utilising the seven storey
space on
the canalside of the building to provide a stack
effect
in the buildings central space.
Currently working
for HCC
It is useful to see social
spaces (very popular with
pupils) as informal learning
spaces why not promote this
idea by dispersing
computer/groupwork pods
Hazelwood School
CLIENT Glasgow City Council
ARCHITECT Gordon Murray + Alan Dunlop
Architects
VALUE 5.6M
Hazelwood School provides education for up to
60
students with multiple disabilities. Each student at
the school has a combination of two or more of
the following impairments: visual impairment,
hearing impairment, mobility or cognitive
impairment. The school provides education from
nursery through to secondary stages.
The design of the building has focused on
creating
a safe, stimulating and non-institutional
environment for its pupils and staff. The existing
site was surrounded by mature lime trees and had
a large lime tree and three beech trees in the
centre. The building snakes through the site,
curving around the existing trees. Its form creates
a series of small garden spaces suitable to the
small class sizes and maximises the potential for
more intimate external teaching environments.
Internally the curved form of the building reduces
the visual scale of the main circulation spaces
and helps remove the institutional feel that one
long corridor would create. The majority of
classrooms face north and get natural uniform
light deep into the spaces through high-level
windows. High-level windows are used as some
of theThe majority of classrooms face north and
get natural uniform light deep into the spaces
through high-level windows. High-level windows
are used as some of the students with visual
impairments can be easily distracted by
movements/activities occurring outside.
Marlowe Academy
CLIENT Rodger de Hann Saga Group &
DfES
ARCHITECT BDP
COST 21M
This new academy for 1200 pupils aged
from 11 to 16, focuses its three teaching
faculties around an open performance
space, which can also be used as social,
learning and informal teaching space. The
building, designed as a student town under
one roof, has an innovative collection of
spaces that open up to provide a 500 seat
theatre allowing the pupil and staff
population to meet together in one place for
whole school assemblies. The school also
has an outreach to the local community,
including a local branch library and space
for the community youth arts programme.
External activity centres around a school
arena set aside a new lake adjacent to the
entrance. This draws school and
community closer together around one of
the strong educational areas of learning.
The academy won the inaugural RIBA Sorrell
Foundation Schools Award in 2007 with the
judges commentating: The atrium is the heart
of a truly public building: the school library is
the local public library, the sports facilities are
available to hire, and local groups use the
theatre regularly. At a time when massive
resources are being directed towards the
rebuilding of Britains educational
infrastructure, Marlowe Academy offers an
ambitious re-definition of what a large new
school can look and feel like
Thomas Deacon Academy
CLIENT The Thomas Deacon Academy
ARCHITECT Foster + Partners
Conceived as part of the Local Education
Authorities city-wide reorganisation of
secondary schools, the Academy merges
two existing schools and one Community
College to provide facilities for 2200
students aged between 11-19. The
Academy specialises in Mathematics and
Science and departs from a conventional
model of secondary schooling in favour of
a of a variety of learning environments.
The Academy is divided into six smaller
units, one for each of the colleges that
form the basis of the schools educational
structure. Each college consists of a V-
shaped ribbon of classrooms, which
creates a three-storey central, sheltered
space that is the heart of each college
and key to the educational and design
concept. Each college also has a Network
Study Area for social interaction and
collective study, allowing teaching staff to
mix with the students, and older students
to mentor their younger colleagues,
fostering a sense of community within the
academy. The undulating glass and steel
structure roof over the central concourse
unifies the architectural design, while
providing natural daylight.
West London Academy
CLIENT DfES and West London Academy
Trust
ARCHITECT Foster + Partners
COST 31M
The West London Academy incorporates a
nursery, primary and secondary schools,
together with the John Chilton School for
special needs children, to accommodate a
total of 1720 students. Specialising in sport
and enterprise, the academy also includes
facilities for adult education and community
sport.
The site is bounded to the north by the A40,
a busy four-lane road. To alleviate the noise
and air pollution of this motorway, the
northern elevation is largely closed. By
contrast, the southern facade is generously
glazed, with courtyards that open onto the
sports fields. The two sides of the building
are linked by an open street, which forms
the organisational spine of the academy.
The building is curved on plan to further
buffer the impact of the A40 and connect to
existing
access points on the site.
The academy is designed to be flexible
enough to adapt to future changes in
educational techniques and curricula. It is
organised around a year base teaching
system where the students remain in their
classrooms and the teachers rotate
through the school with the exception of
the specialist teaching areas such as art
and science, which require fixed
equipment. Two-year bases are clustered
around each of the double-height
courtyards, which serve as communal
spaces and allow classes to be in both
open-plan and closed room spaces.
There are those
clusters again!