A 400 pupil secondary school – area 2,430m2 over 2 storeys. The school is designed in an urban context to accommodate an existing school which had been housed in temporary buildings on the same site.
The two-storey building is entered via a South-facing courtyard with the front porch sheltering underneath an overhanging roof. To the side, the Sports Hall has its own entrance door to cater for out of school hours use by the community.
Every effort has been made to break down the potentially imposing bulk of the building to create a more welcoming and relaxed environment. The school is visually broken
into a number of elements, reinforced by the use of colour and the use of separate roof planes, which step down towards the entrance.
Inside, the plan is based around an L-shaped corridor entered at the centre with stairs at each end. The General Purpose Area is situated just inside the entrance porch providing a milling area and, by the use of a void, spatially linking the GP area and entrance with the First Floor. This area also creates a pleasant break in the Ground and
First Floor corridors which both in turn provide a link to the Sports Hall.
The building was designed to high levels of air tightness and insulation. Daylighting and ventilation is provided to the first floor corridors via clerestory glazing and some sunlight from here is channelled into the north facing classrooms via high-level internal windows to the corridor.
