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The facts
Location: Southampton
Client: Southampton City Council
Start / completion: 2010 - 2012
Contract type: Full design
Project construction value: £4.54 million
Services: Architecture & Lead Consultant,
Landscape Architecture,Structural Engineering, Building Services
Engineering, Civil Engineering, Quantity Surveying, CDM
Coordinator, BREEAM Assessor, Interior Designer, Fire Consultant,
Access Consultant, Security & IT Consultant
The project
The existing secondary school is located in Bitterne Park,
an area to the east of the River Itchen in Southampton. The
provision of post 16 education was given cabinet approval, which in
turn allowed the School to develop their aspiration of a new sixth
form with Performing Arts and SEN specialisms.
The site is located within the heart of a residential area. As such
the School have been keen to share their enthusiasm for the project
and have consulted with local residents from the outset of the
project. The proposed building creates a new ‘front of house’ for
the school and has been designed to reflect the creative nature of
the uses within the building. The site itself has considerable
change in levels and the existing topography has been utilised to a
positive effect within the design of the proposed sixth form. The
main design principles are as follows;
- The theatre is treated as a separate form. The front wall is
designed as an element clad with a timber veneer rainscreen system.
This wall is returned at the corner and continues internally and
leads into the atrium space.
- The glazed atrium visually separates the theatre and teaching
elements, whilst allowing the vertical circulation within the
building to be visible and connect with the street.
- The coloured powder coated aluminium cladding is also read as
an element, identifying the teaching block.
- The secondary elevations and plinth are brick; providing a foil
to the bolder elements of the scheme.
- The sixth form promotes a sense of creative learning and a new
direction for Bitterne Park School.