The Pears National Centre for Autism Education

The Pears National Centre for Autism Education

The Pears Natrional Centre for Autism Education Penoyre + Prasad

Aiysha Alsane

London, England

Fernanda Rosales

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table of contents

site + context

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program

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scale + form

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circulation

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light + view

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material + color

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building systems

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conclusion

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site + context

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Location: London, England Square Footage: 43,560 sq. feet The area around the school is mostly residential, with a few green spaces and woods that are part of a conservation park.

Ambitious About Autism: ‘The Pears National Centre has been designed in complete sympathy with our location in the Muswell Hill conservation area. Ambitious about Autism asked its architects to select natural materials where possible and to use sustainable technologies.’

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Outdoor Play Area Parking/Dropoff Trees Vegetation/Grassy Areas Building

Type of building: Only ABA school in London. Mixed use with Ambitious About Autism offices.

Number of Students: 80 Student to Staff Ratio: varies, close to 1:1 Age Range: 4-18 years-old School Philosophy: ‘Through education we seek to transform the lives of children with autism and the lives of their families. The ethos, staffing and organisation of TreeHouse School combine to create a highly specialist educational environment providing for the range of needs of the pupils in the school. TreeHouse is committed to the use of ABA as the basis for its educational provision.’ - Ambitious about Autism ‘The integration of the office and administration section of the charity with the school brings with it a greater number of adults, which for a school of 80 pupils means that a ratio is close to one-to-one’ - ‘Imagine’

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program

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First Floor

Ground Floor Classroom Specialized Administrative Auxilary Shared Space Transition

Programmatically, the building is split between headquarters of ‘Ambitious about Autism,’ a national charity and the Treehouse School for Autism.

The school program is organized according to the type of occupant: students, teachers, staff, guest/parents.

The plan is split into two halves. One being studentfocused the other being staff-focused. Moving from inwards to outwards, at the core of the first floor there are group areas. Then, come the one-on-one specialized rooms, and around the periphery lie the classrooms. The adult half of the plan includes rooms for guests, parents, staff, and teachers. These rooms include: conference, meeting, training, and assembly rooms.

The second floor is generally the same layout as the first: students to one side, staff and teachers to the other. On the staff side there are offices, gathering spaces, and working stations.

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scale + form

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The school is formally longitudinal, with the central area serving as transitional space and classrooms around the periphery. In section, it shows the skylights that play a pivotal role in the daylighting strategies and in the passive cooling strategies. The skylights, vary in size, location, and shape. They puncture through the form, sometimes extending all the way to the ground floor, creating double ceiling atrium spaces.

The facade is lined with windows, making it almost an open one. Louvered shutters line the facade, serving as a buffer for any harsh, direct sunlight. The same louvered form is used for the glass overhangs that can also be found around the periphery.

From the outside, the form is read simply as a rectangular, but the architects manipulated the facade and inner spaces according to the programmatic requirements using skylights, ceiling height, circulation, and daylighting as driving forces.

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foyer hall void training room kitchen medical areas staff areas classrooms shared work areas

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Pears National Centre Plan Scale 1’ : 1/32”

Treehouse School Section Scale 1’ : 1/32”

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circulation

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Students Teachers Staff Guests

First Floor Plan

The Pears National Centre has a basically linear circulation flow. Guests, students, teachers, and staff alike enter the building through the main entrance.

Primary circulation happens at the core of the building, which divides children spaces, like classrooms and therapy areas, from adult spaces. The adult spaces are mainly for guests/parents and board members on the first floor and for teachers and staff members on the second floor. From those primary routes branch the secondary circulation which lead to the occupantspecific spaces. The tertiary circulation happens within the room itself. ‘...[C]irculation spaces within the centre offer a large degree of flexibility and allow learning to spill out in to other areas of the school. The Multi-purpose hall at the heart of the school opens out onto the circulation zone and creates a larger and more accessible space for performances and gatherings.’ - ‘Imagine’

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light + view

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The daylight and views can be addressed in four categories: skylights, overhangs, double height ceilings, and an open facade.

The building uses skylights to bring light into the center. Those skylights vary in sizes, shape, and vertical extent, depending on the program’s needs.

The celings are double-height where the light wells extend down to the bottom floor.

Overhangs provide shade in the summer, and their perforated nature allows for a gradient of daylight year-round.

The windows are located iin a ribbon around the whole building, making the facade open, and with the aid of shutters and overhangs, they provide distilled views and light.

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material + color

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The color palette seems to correlate to the materials used: transparent, earthy, or neutral.

The neutral colors are usually grayscale. The earthy colors are the wood and brick parts. The transparent include the louvered overhangs and the light wells.

The earthy colors seem to be articulated in the facade and also in atrium or shared spaces, highlighting the spaces that serve as links to the outside world. This is shown in wood flooring, wood louvered shutters, and brick used in the facade.

The transparency is used to maximize daylight.

Steel is used to hold up the transparent elements.

The neutral colors are present in the individual classrooms. All permanent architectural elements in those individualized spaces are neutral: white or gray.

This includes the finishes on the walls, and the bare concrete.

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building systems

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Ventilation Heating Cooling

The building relies heavily on passive building systems.

Heat gain happens throughout the day, through the windows that line the whole facade and through the various skylights. The roof is angled to maximize daylight and heat gain. As the concrete absorbs heat all day, the skylights can be operated to passively cool the building overnight.

Generally, the passive systems rely mostly on the operable skylights.

The building also uses coupled-air ventillation.

‘Imagine’ wrote: ‘The building is predicted to use 67% less energy than the energy benchmarks set out in the Greater London Authority’s guidance for planners.

10% of the energy will be derived from renewable energy sources (ground coupled air pipes).’

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conclusion Penoyre & Prasad excelled in the programmatic organization of the building. Because they needed to provide for a significant amount of office space, they provided an interior space that suites everyone from students to teachers to Ambitious About Autism staff. They managed to integrate the headquarters of the foundation with the school, without interposing the chaos of the adult world on the children and vice-versa.

The building is inwardly focused. The main formal elements are the light wells. The building in section is far more spatial and three-dimensional than the treatment of the façade and ground-plane. The outer skin is a simple rectangle, but all formal modification is space-specific according to the program.

The building aids the curriculum. By having one-on-one rooms close to communal areas, it allows students to interact with each other as they progress in social interaction. It allows them to get equipped with life skills by having multipurpose rooms like music hall, gym, and kitchens.

The circulation also seperates students from adults, by having a main shared route at the center that then leads to a secondary circulation for each area respectively. This hierarchal form serves as a way-finding tool for students since all rooms are located around this main central path.

Penoyre & Prasad used a neutral color palette for the individual spaces, allowing for modification through less permanent elements, like furniture, and also accommodating the wide range of autism in the students. They were more playful with the color in the more communal areas and in the façade of the building.

The architects’ choices suit the curriculum and AAA’s desire of having a sustainable building. They reacted well both practically and formally to the site, context, program and general school needs.

bibliography

“Our Building: The Pears National Centre.” Ambitious about Autism, n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2013. < http://www. ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/page/who_we_are/the_pears_national_centre/index.cfm> Rowe, Mark. 10 Feb. 2012. Technical drawings and General Information. Dropbox and Email Correspondance.

Penoyre & Prasad.

Images: Fordham, Max. The Pears National Centre for Autism Education. Digital images. Flickr, 09 June 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2012. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxfordham/> Rowe, Mark. 10 Feb. 2012. Technical drawings and General Information. Dropbox and Email Correspondance.

On Behalf of Penoyre & Prasad.