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Location: West Sussex
Client: Balfour Beatty
Value: Various as below
Status: Completion 2012
West Sussex Schools
This batch of four new academies was won through a competitive design process using the first project, the Sir Robert Woodard Academy, as a sample school. Following selection as preferred bidder, the remaining projects all commenced by the end of 2009, thereafter running concurrently and to a very tight design and delivery programme. From the very first school engagement meeting, all four new schools, with a combined construction cost of £110m, were designed and delivered in just three years and 4 months.
Whilst each site had its own unique physical context, and each school its own ethos and identity, we were able to deliver efficiencies by standardising elements of the construction and specification. With a single Director in Charge of the whole batch, overseeing four Project Architects, we were able to ensure a consistency of approach and share lessons learnt from any one project across the whole group. This collaborative approach based on clear communication channels also extended to the wider design team and was key to achieving efficiencies while delivering design quality.
Sir Robert Woodard Academy (£28m)
Sir Robert Woodard Academy was the first of four academies completed as part of the West Sussex Academies program. Sponsored by the Woodard Trust, the Academy caters for all faiths, with the wedge-shaped atrium space designed to ‘shine out’ to advertise its presence and act as beacon for its values.
The layout and concept for the new Academy respond to the Sponsor’s vision and ethos. The Woodard Trust’s leadership structure and pastoral arrangements are based on the creation of six small schools known as the ‘Chapters’ - one caters for Year 7 students, four are for 12-16 students and one is for Sixth Form students. Each Chapter is a vertical unit of up to 240 students plus support staff and represents a separate identity within the main school.
Shoreham Academy (£24m)
The new Academy was briefed with a ‘school within school’ organization comprising three distinct schools focused around a central hub. The vision was for this ‘heart space’ to accommodate the entire school population, however it quickly became evident that the briefed area allocations and funding would fall someway short of this aspiration. By combining dining, learning resources, circulation and other allowances we were able to provide a multipurpose space over three floors that delivered each of these functions individually while also allowing their combined use for whole school gatherings.
Littlehampton Academy (£30m)
One of the largest schools undertaken by ArchitecturePLB with an occupancy of 1900 pupils. It is organised as three teaching wings set around a central hall and dining area acting as the school’s heart. Each wing is light and spacious, with wide corridors and a clerestory roof light to allow excellent natural daylight to penetrate.
Midhurst Rother Academy (£28m)
The site required a sensitive and sympathetic response, whilst simultaneously offering the opportunity to design a unique and exciting building. The new building gathers all visitors and users at a generous entrance, covered by a canopy, with the entrance itself further recessed into the building. Beyond this double height entrance are the key spaces such as dining, LRC and the theatre, all of which are publicly accessible for out of hours use, opening directly onto the triple height circulation and exhibition space at ground level.
Project Team
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