Award Winning Schemes

Red Hill Primary School - Replacement School

Location: Worcester, Worcestershire

Client: Children's Services, Worcestershire County Council

Start Date: January 2006

Completion: April 2007

Value: £2.8 million

Awards: National Gold Winner: Green Apple Awards 2007 for the Built Environment and Architectural Heritage.

The new Red Hill CE Primary School and nursery replaces a dilapidated 1960s school on the same site. The building plan follows the curve of an existing avenue of mature trees, so that classrooms have shady outdoor terraces. A top-lit central corridor forms the spine of the school.

The classrooms have been arranged in pairs, sharing group rooms and a practical areas to encourage collaborative teaching. The front of the building houses the school hall and music studio that are used by the local community. 

The building's sustainability features such ground source heating, and rainwater harvesting for toilet flushing can be monitored by the children as a learning tool. Sustainable drainage systems in the grounds including swales and ponds have created new habitats as well as new learning environments.

Opened by The Minister for Climate Change, Ian Pearson, this building sets the standards for sustainable school design and is now being visited by numerous bodies.

King Charles 1^st Lower School - Arts Centre

Location: Kidderminster

Client: Children's Services, Worcestershire County Council

Start Date: July 2008

Completion: January 2009

Value: £870,000

Awards: Silver Winner: International Green Apple Awards 2009 for the Built Environment and Architectural Heritage.

The Arts Centre is a separate stand alone building providing excellent new Art and Dance facilities for the school and the wider community. The accommodation comprises an art studio, exhibition space, dance studio with sprung floor and changing rooms, offices and stores. There is a covered link to the existing gymnasium providing shared use of the changing facilities and providing a covered area for cycle storage.

The building acknowledges its surrounding natural environment, creating external spaces and courtyards that have used to advantage most of the existing trees and hedges.

All main roofs are sedum covered for rainwater attenuation and biodiversity enhancement. These also acts to minimise and soften the visual impact and to attenuate from noise from the centre. The limited pallet of external materials include Western Red Cedar cladding to the art and dance studios and a plain render finish to the entrance block.

From the earliest planning stages consideration was given to providing an environmentally sustainable approach. The building has been aligned to make best use of passive solar gain with the concrete ground floor slab acting as a solar thermal store. An area of flat roof has provided for the optimum positioning of solar panels, which provide hot water to the showers, and for future potential for the installation of photovoltaic panels for electricity generation.  A low carbon wood pellet boiler has been installed to provide energy for the underfloor heating system.

Fairfield Community Primary School - New School

Location: Worcester, Worcestershire

Client: Children's Service's, Worcestershire County Council     

Completion: September 2006

Value: £6 million

Awards: Winner in the Regeneration Category RICS West Midlands

From the school project's inception, emphasis was placed on integrating the new school's facilities with those of the developing Fairfield Centre.

The school hall is designed for joint-use and includes a satellite kitchen linked to the new neighbourhood centre kitchen.  The design also allows independent access to the changing facilities, to enable out-of-hours community use.

The garden has been developed to provide a teaching resource for environmental themes; the centrepiece is the recently installed 2.5Kw wind turbine, a popular local landmark.

The school provides eight classrooms including a fully appointed nursery.  All the teaching spaces are naturally ventilated with low-level inlets and high-level chimneys, controlled by a computerised building management system that senses internal and external air temperatures together with wind speed.

The main play area has been enlarged and is to be enhanced with the provision of a ball court scheme with re-bound fencing. This will allow shared use by children including wheelchair users from the adjacent special school.

Hartlebury Castle County Museum - Improvements to visitor facilities

Location: Hartlebury, Worcestershire

Client: Adult and Community Services, Worcestershire County Council

Start Date: Client: Jan 2006      

Completion: July 2006

Value: £700,000

Awards: Wychavon Heritage Design Award,  Commendation in Building Award 2007

The Worcestershire County Museum has occupied the north wing of this Grade I, listed building since 1966, under a lease from the Church Commissioners.

Appraisals of the level of visitor facilities, together with the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, highlighted the need for development to ensure that the Museum was able to satisfy public expectations and meet access requirements.

The project

The existing basic timber hut catering provision in the Museum Orchard has now been replaced with a sixty cover café housed in the converted 'castle kitchen' and a new kitchen formed within the Castle's State Rooms to serve both the Museum's café and, when required, State Rooms functions too.

A glass passenger lift and lobby, enclosed within a glass and steel structure now links all three floors of the building and provides an excellent view of the north Worcestershire countryside. A remote generator supports the lift, as it functions as an evacuation lift in the case of fire.

A new glass entrance pavilion has been constructed, including glass walls, roof and beams.  The pavilion, which has a limestone floor, is entered through automatic sliding glass doors from an external area also paved with limestone.

English heritage have been closely consulted throughout and were fully supportive of the principle to erect a glass lift shaft and entrance structure to replace the existing shabby foyer saying 'the transparency of these structures will make a bold and obvious modern architectural statement but one which will not compete with or detract from the listed building which will still be glimpsed both through and around them.'

Work on site was interrupted by 'archaeological dig'. A medieval hearth was removed to allow the excavation of lift pit to continue, and medieval foundations are now on display through a specially designed glass viewing area in the floor of the entrance.

Malvern Library - Extension and Alterations

Location: Malvern, Worcestershire     

Client: Adult & Community Services, Worcestershire County Council         

Completion: June 2006

Value: £1.4million

Awards: Malvern Civic Trust Award

Worcestershire's busiest library has been provided with 500m2 of additional floor space in a new extension designed to complement the existing Edwardian library, whilst providing improved disabled access to the lower floor.

The new extension features a double-height bay window which houses a grand staircase with views from the Malvern Hills across Worcestershire.

The remainder of the existing building has been refurbished and provided with a new layout and shelving, and new heating and lighting throughout. Library stock has been increased, and special library areas have been incorporated for children, teenagers, and internet access.

A new art gallery and café have also been incorporated in the new extension. This work forms the second phase of the project which saw the addition of the Customer Service Centre to the library two years ago.