Learning

Brief

The Client's requirement for Deans Community High School near Livingston was for a new building, on an existing school site, providing for eleven hundred pupils. Strong community involvement was encouraged by the provision of improved facilities that could be used outwith school hours. These would enhance those available in the surrounding area. As the brief developed, far greater community interaction with the school was predicted. We had to cater for the unusual circumstance of an educational facility that was available for external use during the school day.

Response

Our response concentrated on the provision of a central social space and internal courtyard that would form a unifying focus for other elements of the building. This larger volume space helps separate potentially noisy environments such as music, drama and sports from the quieter teaching spaces which wrap round the remaining sides of the courtyard. The landscape design helps to enhance the form of the new school and introduces biodiversity into the landscape proposal enabling the school to develop its outdoor teaching curriculum.

Outcome

In direct response to the Council's desire for greater community involvement, locating the new building closer to the main public highway increases the school’s sense of civic presence and further enhances its place within the surrounding area. The new school opened in Autumn 2009 and the public now have access to fantastic sports facilities which include a twenty five metre swimming pool and will also be able to take full advantage of the school’s new three hundred and fifty seat theatre, playgroup and crèche facilities. In the month since its official opening, the school made a significant impact on the local community becoming a focal point of the various life long teaching initiatives Livingston has become renowned for.

• Architecture
• Interior design
• Planning
• Landscape
• Urban design