The expansion of the existing 1FE Julian’s Primary School to provide a new fully accessible 3FE school on a challenging sloping urban site to new space standards (BB99 less 15%) which were later formalised in BB103.
Design Approach
The massive 12m slope on the site initially posed a major challenge, particularly in light of the accessibility aspirations, reduced space standards and budget.
However, by working collaboratively with the design team, we were able to propose a solution that maximised the site by working with the natural contours and levels, allowing us to achieve the following:
- school built into the hillside, which reduced the footprint to be less than the existing school building, and opened up the site to ensure space standards were met for external playspace and amenity;
- good balance between cut-&-fill, reducing cost significantly;
- 3 floors which utilized site levels to allow each floor to have direct access to external teaching and playspaces, without relying on terraces or roof gardens;
- an almost-perfect north-south orientation, allowing maximum passive control of daylighting and solar control.
The arrangement of the school allowed for clear access in and around the school, allowing the site to become almost entirely (DD) accessible through carefully crafted landscape and use of the central lift to provide access to each level and associated landscaped areas.
During our engagement with the planning department pre-planning, it was discovered that the school site had been declared a Site of Important Nature Conservation, due to its natural habitat areas. We responded to this by making it a core concept of the school, significantly increasing the biodiversity of the site and referencing this in both the interior design and selection of materials, both externally and internally.
