As part of the nationwide programme Building Schools for the Future, 2hD were asked by Lathams Architects to work on the conceptual development of one of the exemplar designs — the renovation and rebuilding of an existing 1960s school to accommodate an additional 300 pupils on a tight inner city site, within a limited £15m budget.
Our consortium later on won the bid for the Building Schools for the Future programme in Birmingham.
We were approached at an early stage of the design process and we focused on:
- carrying out key site studies, including access and climatic factors,
- developing the initial conceptual design,
- replanning the building and site to accommodate a new flexible teaching model,
- designing the interiors in response to the tight technical and financial constraints.
We worked closely with other consultants, including fire and structural engineers, landscape designers and education experts to integrate their input to the core of the design approach.
Our approach:
- redesigning the school to ensure a friendly welcome and easy circulation for staff, pupils and the community.
- Incorporating a deep understanding of the transition in teaching methods to allow this to happen naturally over time.
- creating pleasant learning environments within the pressures of a tight budget and limited space on site.
We initially developed alternative design concepts exploring the subtle relationship between the school and the surrounding communities.
We initially developed alternative design concepts exploring the subtle relationship between the school and the surrounding communities
We sketched extensive and detailed views of the proposed teaching spaces to communicate design ideas to the client and the other members of the team
The evolution of educational methods was to be embedded into the design and we made sure that all teaching spaces were flexible to allow a smooth transition over time
