Hadden Park High School
Hadden Park High School was one of the three sample
schools that formed part of the winning Nottingham BSF bid. The
project comprised the remodelling and refurbishing of an existing
school as well as the design of a new extension for science, art,
humanities and maths.
The school, which has capacity for 750 pupils aged 11-16,
includes ‘shop front units’ for community use and vocational
studies and is part of the larger Harvey Hadden Campus which also
includes a primary school, sports pitches and athletics stadium.
The scheme, which comprised 7300 sq m of remodelling works and 1400
sq m of new build, was carried out in five phases.
The masterplan brought order, clarity and a sense of place to
the school. This was achieved primarily through the introduction of
a campus plaza located centrally on the site which serves as a
point from which the visitor can conveniently access Hadden Park
High, the adjacent special school (Oak Field), primary school
(Glenbrook), sports hall and sports pitches.
The plaza is linked by pedestrian routes from all sides of the
site and served (but not crossed) by vehicular routes for parking
and deliveries.
A new double height crystalline glazed main entrance pavilion
has also been inserted, giving the school a completely new
entrance. The entrance houses the reception, a learning resource
centre and a community café, with the learning resource centre
offering a front-of-house public information hub for the local
community as well as a school resource.
The whole project from the low-energy building design, through
construction methods developed to minimise waste, to the commitment
to establish ecological and horticultural areas within the site,
has been evaluated to maximise the sustainability of our
proposals.
Value: £12m
Services: Lead Consultant / Architecture, Environmental Design,
Civil & Structural Engineering, Landscape Architecture, ICT,
Acoustics, Security & Fire Engineering
Start/Completion: 2008-2010
Big Wood School, Business and Enterprise College
Big Wood School was another of the three sample schools
that formed part of the winning Nottingham BSF bid. It demonstrated
the bidding team’s expertise in designing a new school on an
operational site whilst the existing school remained
open.
The new school, which has been designed to achieve a BREEAM
rating of ‘excellent’, comprises 8280 sq m was built in three
phases including the demolition of the existing school in 2010. The
accommodation, which caters for 900 pupils aged 11-15, will include
an Enterprise Centre and Construction Centre for community use and
vocational studies. The combination of a superb site on the edge of
the beautiful Bestwood Country Park - an elevated location
affording views over Nottingham city - provides an extremely
aspirational brief for transformational educational learning /
teaching environments and an evidently happy and successful school
culture, all within a wider cultural context of a deprived urban
community.
Each of Big Wood’s ‘learning clusters’ face the shared central
learning courtyard and also have access to their own ‘private’
curriculum garden – an outdoor learning space with unique features.
For example, the ‘English and Expressive Arts’ garden has an
amphitheatre; the ‘Maths and Design Technology’ garden features a
giant chess board; and the ‘Science and Humanities’ garden features
an area of natural habitat. At the centre of each learning cluster
is a large, flexible space surrounded by classrooms. This is the
cluster heart space and will be used for learning in small and
large groups as well as being a social space for pupils.
The whole project, from the low-energy building design and the
construction method developed to minimise waste, to the commitment
to establish ecological and horticultural areas within the site,
has been evaluated to maximise sustainability. Big Wood School is
also the first education building in the UK to have a pure plant
oil CHP (Combined Heat and Power) plant.
Value: £19.2m
Services: Lead Consultant / Architecture, Environmental Design,
Civil & Structural Engineering, Landscape Architecture, ICT,
Acoustics, Security & Fire Engineering
Start/Completion: 2008-2010
Oak Field School and Sports College
Designed by Evans Vettori with technical architect
services provided by Capita Symonds, the 5500 sq m Oak Field School
and Sports College can cater for 140 pupils with additional needs
aged 3-19.
Comprising a therapeutic hot pool, a double-height circulation
hub (or ‘Heart Space’), a sports and performance hall, and event
space/congregation areas, the school also features a real-life
demonstration ‘flat’ for mobility and sensory learning purposes
which will help prepare older pupils for the adult world.
Oak Field School is part of a wider campus that includes
Glenbrook Primary School and Hadden Park High School, a refurbished
secondary school. Each school sits within an integrated shared
external environment aiming to create a single campus where ease of
access, through clear circulation patterns, is a priority. The
whole campus can actually be seen as an extension to the classroom,
as a teaching resource, and as a community asset.
The new school shares knowledge, expertise and resources with
the other schools on the campus to maximise benefits for all the
children. The campus facilitates real, sustained inclusion,
providing a ‘minicommunity’ within which the special school
students can play an active, high-profile role.
The design is generated from a ‘family’ of age-specific
‘mini-schools’ or ‘key-stage pods’ gathered around a central ‘heart
space’. This creates a sense of identity with increasingly
small-scale spaces as one goes further into the building. Each
key-stage pod has been expressly designed to provide a wide variety
of learning opportunities to facilitate diverse educational
opportunities. Students can learn in familiar classroom settings,
in formal open areas and café style environments, in smaller spaces
or group rooms, and in secure outdoor play areas, all within close
proximity.
The buildings are primarily single storey in form, although a
small two-storey block contains administrative functions. The
materials used include glulam structural columns and beams,
hardwood external timber cladding, aluminium curtain walling and
coloured aluminium-framed glass doors, glazed “snood” rooflights,
internal and external brickwork and external render.
The whole project, including the low-energy building design; the
construction method developed to minimise waste; and the commitment
to establish ecological and horticultural areas within the site,
has been evaluated to maximise sustainability. These strategies are
underpinned by the provision of on-site energy via a bio-fuel
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant. Wherever possible the
sustainable initiatives are conspicuous and are used as educational
resources.
Value: £14.7m
Services: Lead Consultant / Architecture, Environmental Design,
Civil & Structural Engineering, Landscape Architecture, ICT,
Acoustics, Security & Fire Engineering
Start/Completion: 2008–2010
Ellis Guilford School
The proposed works to the school are specifically aimed
to create a transformational teaching environment. The ultimate
objective is to ‘gather’ buildings together in a considered way
through the connection of existing and new external spaces, which
in turn will provide exciting places for learning both internally
and externally.
Key priorities include:
- The removal of temporary buildings;
- The enhancement of external spaces for recreation and
enjoyment;
- Providing new dining and social spaces;
- Rationalising departmental adjacencies;
- Providing opportunities for diverse learning styles;
The proposed external works are focused around the creation of a
‘town square’. This will provide the site with a central social hub
and focal point. In contrast to this the general teaching
accommodation will be wrapped around a cloistered courtyard,
creating a reflective and calming central space for outdoor
learning.
Value: £11.5m
Services: Lead Consultant / Architecture, Environmental Design,
Civil & Structural Engineering, Landscape Architecture, ICT,
Acoustics, Security & Fire Engineering
Start/Completion: 2010–2012
Rosehill School
The existing school site was originally built in 1931 as
‘Rose Hill Open Air and Special School’ on the site of Rose Hill
Farm. The school buildings have been added to over the last 70
years and are rather cramped and rambling, with very little usable,
purpose-designed outdoor space. The overall campus is a mature
site, with rich bio-diversity and superb views across the
city.
The proposals involve the demolition of the northern, post-war
modular part of the school that is in poor condition, and the
building of a new two-storey class-base block to house the school’s
13-19 year olds. Two further learning clusters are provided -one
new-build and one extending one of the original buildings. The
‘whole school’ facilities and the new entrance will be provided by
linking and remodelling two of the original buildings.
The existing school has developed in a piecemeal fashion for use
by children with autism. Hence spaces have been continuously
sub-divided to create ever smaller rooms. The rebuilt school
recognises this need in the design of 14 ‘classbases’ for eight
children which each incorporate a number of varying sized rooms to
cater for a wide range of abilities and scenarios.
Currently the main access to the school is invisible both from
the street, and from the existing vehicular access. The creation of
a proper ‘front door’ is a key objective of the rebuilt school. The
new approach up a gentle slope from the north has the potential to
become a central feature of the site as the new entrance sits
prominently at the top of the hill. The existing school buildings
vary in condition, with the pitched roofed parts being generally
more robust. These will be retained and improved in the rebuilt
school while new buildings will be designed sympathetically to the
existing context, using brick, timber, copper and glass.
Value: £8.6m
Services: Lead Consultant, Environmental Design, Civil &
Structural Engineering, Landscape Architecture, ICT, Acoustics,
Security & Fire Engineering
Start/Completion: Spring 2010–Spring 2011