why refurbish case study 5

School renewal by refurbishment a good practice guide

REMADE LEARNING PLACES EXAMPLE 5 RURAL PRIMARY SCHOOL BENT PRIMARY SCHOOL

INTRODUCTION

These examples of refurbishment support the ‘Why Refurbish?’ guide published by A&DS. The purpose is to show how local authorities approached different scales and types of school refurbishment projects across Scotland. A summary of learning points are set out in each example which reference the 9 principles of ‘Building Better Schools; Investing in Scotland’s Future’.

Examples: 1 Notre Dame Primary School Listed urban primary school 2 Castlepark Primary School & Nursery Suburban primary school 3 Coltness High School Mid 20th century suburban high school 4 Halyrude Primary School Rural primary school 5 Bent Primary School Rural primary school 6 Greenhill Primary School & Drumpark ASN Primary School Co-located suburban primary schools into listed building REMADE LEARNING PLACES

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CONTENTS

01 Overview

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02 Client

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03 Background

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04 Approach

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05 Reorganising and creating space

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06 Learning points

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EXAMPLE 5 / RURAL PRIMARY SCHOOL

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“The refurbished and remodelled school in South Lanarkshire has brought added value to the area by enhancing an existing vernacular building that was very important to the local community.

Renewal has allowed the creation of a sensitively updated learning environment and multi-agency facility at a comparable cost to a new build scheme.�

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EXAMPLE 5 RURAL PRIMARY SCHOOL

Bent Primary School Lesmahagow, South Lanarkshire Size 40 pupils Type Refurbishment and extension Client South Lanarkshire Council Design and management Aedas Contractor Morgan Sindall Programme June 2011 – May 2012

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01.

OVERVIEW

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Bent Primary School is a small-scale, rural, four classroom school surrounded by open farmland. The existing school consisted of a stone 1800’s building with a 1960’s extension.

The school had been poorly and unsympathetically extended resulting in inefficient use of space and also outdated environmental conditions. The rural location of this school drives a strong sense of attachment and identification with place, and this was a major driver for keeping the building in use.

Full consultation with the local community was undertaken and a range of possible alternative locations for relocating the school were reviewed and rejected. The decision to keep the school in use at its historic location has allowed an existing asset to be successfully updated and learning conditions significantly improved for use by current and future generations of learners.

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CLIENT

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BACKGROUND

03 Local authority officers from property, education, facilities management, ICT and schools modernization were involved. The overall school renewal programme was led by corporate services with local authority officer teams in support from education, property and schools. The local authority team, staff and community view the project as a success and a community asset was kept in use. The new school is perceived as equally good as a new build solution, and satisfaction with the learning environment has greatly increased for learners, staff, and the community.

South Lanarkshire Council have a policy of looking at each school on an individual basis, and for this school, continuing consultation with the community identified a clear preference for a refurbishment and remodelling approach.

A successful close working relationship between the community, the school and the authority allowed the architects and contractor to achieve an exemplar school suited to the rural location. A local decant facility was used successfully by the authority for the duration of the contract. This facility consisted of temporary units for teaching and administration, with the host school halls and facilities in relation to dining used.

A higher level of consultation was required as part of a strategic assessment of the whole SLC school estate, reviewing schools rationalisation. This part of the consultation and respective strategy were established and agreed at the pre-design stages.

The eventual project that emerged formed part of tranche one of the second phase of South Lanarkshire Council’s school renewal programme. Initial design briefing occurred during 2009-2010 and the project was procured and constructed during 2011-2012.

Briefing this project successfully required that the council balance the output of the early strategic assessment with the desires expressed during consultation; and that school closure was avoided.

An initial design study explored a new build option alongside an option for refurbishment and remodelling. Option appraisal was then rolled out comparing new build vs. refurbished scheme.

This process was used to establish a cost comparison between the two approaches. Costs were comparable between the two and this established the business case.

Image above: Bent Primary School sits in a rural agricultural setting and is an important community asset.

EXAMPLE 5 / RURAL PRIMARY SCHOOL

The project was delivered on time and within budget.

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04.

APPROACH

Consultation identified the importance of the existing 1800’s school building to the local community, who were strongly supportive of a refurbishment approach to ensure the continuing operation of the school.

Suitability for refurbishment was reviewed through a carefully considered option appraisal process. The process threw up a number of opportunities and significantly identified the potential for removing the 1960’s parts of the school which were found to be in poor physical condition, and ill suited to meet the needs of the Curriculum for Excellence.

An early assessment of the size and arrangement of the original parts of the 1800’s school suggested poor levels of suitability for reuse as modern learning spaces.

This became a key driver informing the decision to locate all learning and whole school spaces within the new build spaces to be added. All administration and support functions were grouped together and located within the historic fabric of the school. The general purpose area was also housed in this part of the building, ensuring full utilization of the available floor area, while also providing full use for the community and support services such as health visitors.

All new parts of the building were sized in line with best practice standards, and were positioned in a site location to best suit servicing and access requirements and constraints. Classrooms were located in the quiet rear area of the site. The main school entrance is located between the old and new parts of the building, creating legibility and offering some physical separation between new and old. This helped ease the construction process and allowed for a natural break between phases of work. The new build addition consists of a biomass plant room, the multi-purpose school hall, and the learning spaces, all of which are grouped together in a single and efficient footprint. This grouping ensured that the minimum site area was used be build on, freeing sufficient area for the provision of outdoor learning spaces.

REMADE LEARNING PLACES

The provision of the new build parts of the school allowed for a complete upgrading of educational functions and fit-out to all the spaces.

Master planning the development of the school in this way also created the possibility to incorporate new outdoor learning spaces in useful locations. Two such areas were formed; one sitting in between the existing and new additions to the school, the other running along the elevation of the new classrooms and facing out over the agricultural landscape. Both spaces are overlooked and supervised passively by virtue of their adjacency to occupied rooms. Hall and learning spaces in the building are available for out of hours community use, and this in turn helps support the outreach of the school into the rural community.

Left: The new build additions are clearly expressed by a separating zone of glazing. This allows the new additions to touch the old building as lightly as possible and simplify the foundations.

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The extension was specified and constructed to offer high levels of environmental performance as stipulated in the planning conditions. The whole building is heated using biomass fuel sourced locally and managed under a supply chain agreement offering economies of scale.

The existing part of the building has also been upgraded to improve its operational and energy efficiency.

EXAMPLE 5 / RURAL PRIMARY SCHOOL

The existing parts of the vernacular school have all been fully refurbished and upgraded to current building standards and a general purpose teaching area is located just off the main entrance. This space is well used and is popular with staff and pupils. Community access to this space is an option.

New biomass plant space, hall and WC cores along with brand new classrooms and a flexible social learning space have been added. The footprint of the building creates a sheltered west facing outdoor learning area.

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05 Key design drivers

Meeting the needs

• Improve learning conditions and raise condition class of the building to fully support learning outcomes and to create Curriculum for Excellence enabled learning spaces

• The strategic funding case was well formulated and established at an early enough stage to permit careful budgeting. The business case was supported with option appraisal comparing new build against remodelling

• Add to the operational efficiencies of the school by resolving legacy issues, upgrading building fabric, services, and by including renewable energy sources on site

• Consultation and engagements were essential to permit brief taking and to inform the design approach at strategic, property, functional and fit-out briefing stages

• Avoid any school closure or relocation

• Careful asset assessment and appraisal work was used to successfully inform these briefing stages and also to support the community preferred approach to renewing the school by refurbishment and extension

• Re-use of an established existing school building and the creation of a significantly improved learning environment to suit Curriculum for Excellence and support the local community and educational needs • Improve access requirements and comply with DDA and Occupational Therapy needs

• Very tight site constraints required carefully considered construction phasing and close working with the contractor. Local authority and school teams worked effectively and continually to ensure that construction phasing plans were monitored and revised where required. Key Perfomance Indicators were well established during the partnering stages to ensure performance during the site construction stages

• Design in context – the use of modern construction methods and vernacular inspired materials ensure that the new school adapts to the fabric of the existing stone building adding to sustainable practice • Emphasizing the transition from old to new – the front façade of the new extension is an extrusion of the existing stone building form, with a glass link to the original stone building

• The community, school and Local Authority encouraged all disciplines to work closely together through careful establishment of a partnering agreement which included carefully coordinated services and landscaping as a key Design Quality Indicator • Off site pre-fabrication for structural frame elements, helped reduce construction programme time and the respective preliminaries. Off site construction also required less site working area for construction activities. This further helped with phasing, decant, and Health and Safety requirements

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Previous page, left and below: the new plant spaces are located at the front of the site to ease servicing. They use materials that reference the agricultural vernacular of metal clad barns and create an honest, direct and good value architectural expression.

Bottom: new classrooms overlook the rural context and play activities are undertaken in a new landscaped playground.

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EXAMPLE 5 / RURAL PRIMARY SCHOOL

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05.

REORGANISING AND CREATING SPACE

• Careful assessment of the existing school facility informed the approach to spatial and functional briefing. In turn, these briefing stages influenced the design strategy and the development of the site master plan

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• The occupier’s perspective was fully considered and enough time allowed for consultation and engagements. In turn, the functional and fit-out brief were developed to capture the learning needs, and also to suit: occupations and use, density, flexibility, and staff amenities • Space allocation and space planning were used effectively to reduce the new build foot print area and create efficiencies, add value, and control costs.

The schedule of accommodation was worked to ensure fully utilised spaces • Public areas such as the gym, dining hall, general purpose room are well located adjacent to the front entrance for accessibility. Classroom spaces were located in quieter site locations to mitigate any acoustic issues • The requirement for pragmatic adjacencies was incorporated as part of the operational briefing.

This led to classrooms wrapping around the courtyard, providing a natural flow from internal to external outdoor learning areas with high levels of passive supervision

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Above: new classrooms wrap around a sheltered outdoor learning area that provides opportunities for dining, social learning, art and craft based activities. The space allows lots of natural light into the social and circulation spaces of the renewed school. This adds positively to the transformation of the primary school. Bold colour on the interior walls is visible through full height glazing, making a connection between inside and outside, and animating and brightening the external space on overcast days. Large roof overhangs create sheltered play areas that allow use of this space during periods of inclement weather.

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EXAMPLE 5 / RURAL PRIMARY SCHOOL

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LEARNING POINTS

Example

Bent Primary School, Lesmahagow

Scale

Intermediate scale refurbishment and extension

Type

19th Century rural primary school

Context

Rural

Priorities

• Existing high levels of community attachment to the building • Lack of viable alternative site • Remote location and a lack of other nearby schools supported keeping the building in use • Continuing education use to support place and community needs

Key lessons and alignment with Scottish Government 9 Principles for School Renewal

Principle 9: Schools should best serve their communities • School closure in rural areas requires careful consideration and justification.

Keeping the school at Bent in operation ensures and supports community cohesion and identity • Consultation with the community should be planned into the early project establishment stages and sufficient time allowed to consider the community and learner needs. Continue consultation and re-appraise the outcomes carefully though the project stages • Develop the design closely with the school team. Pay attention to the knowledge that the staff and learners carry and include the views of key staff such as caretakers, admin and support staff – not just teachers and managers Principle 8: Schools should drive and support effective learning and teaching • Design approaches that consume play space with new buildings should be avoided where possible. Curriculum for Excellence promotes outdoor learning as being as important as learning within the school building

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cont.

Key lessons

• Brief with all the needs in mind. Strategic, property, functional, fit out and

and alignment with

operational needs must be in the right balance to create a successful outcome.

Scottish Government

When budgeting, match the briefing hierarchy and allocate sufficient budgeting

9 Principles for

to meet the established priorities. Review the budget throughout the

School Renewal

project process • Pay attention to changing ICT technology and learning styles. Build in agility and understand how space use changes might drive hard and soft services requirements. Budget for ICT renewal at the appropriate frequency

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A&DS wishes to thank the following people and organisations for participation, assistance and contribution in preparing this guide: • • • • • • •

Contributors of featured examples • Aedas Architects • Archial NORR • Glasgow City Council (Project Management & Design) • JM Architects • CRGP Architects & Surveyors • Realm ISD • Scottish Borders Council Architects Section (Design Services) • Space Strategies • Stallan Brand

The Scottish Government Scottish Futures Trust Association of Directors of Education in Scotland Convention of Scottish Local Authorities Education Scotland Grounds For Learning Design by Graven

Officers and teaching staff from • Dundee City Council • City of Edinburgh Council • Fife Council • Glasgow City Council • Highland Council • Moray Council • North Ayrshire Council • North Lanarkshire Council • Scottish Borders Council • South Lanarkshire Council • West Lothian Council

Image credits 01–11 Bent Primary School: Daniel Hopkinson

Expert consultants • Alastair Blyth • John Worthington • Nick Wright • Lorraine Tulloch Advocacy contributors • Alan Russell: Senior Teacher & Education Officer (retired) • Alastair Blyth: Learning Environments Assessor and Advisor • Dugald Forbes: Educationalist (retired) • Historic Scotland • John Worthington: Expert Advisor • Scottish Borders Council: Asset Management Officer • Scott Brownrigg: Architectural Design Consultant

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APPENDICES

The following documents are a useful resource supporting the ideas, themes and arguments contained within this guide: School Estate Management Plans Building Our Future: Scotland’s School Estate www.scotland.gov.uk/ Publications/2003/08/18009/25296

Managing the Brief For Better Design www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415460316/ How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built Brand, S, Penguin Books, 1995 OECD

Building Excellence – Exploring the implications of Curriculum for Excellence for school buildings www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/Buildings/ Excellence

Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) – Schooling for Tomorrow www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/centreforeducationalresearchan dinnovationceri-schoolingfortomorrow.htm

Senses of Place: Building Excellence www.ads.org.uk/smarterplaces

Modernising School Buildings in Portugal www.oecd.org/education/innovation-education/ centreforeffectivelearningenvironmentscele/49567409. pdf

Better Briefing For Education Benefit www.ads.org.uk/smarterplaces/features/betterbriefing-for-education-benefit-transforming-spacesto-inspire

SFT Lessons Learnt www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/publications/lessonslearnt/

The Re-design Option www.ads.org.uk/smarterplaces/news/the-re-designoption-exhibition

SFT Schools Development Handbook www.scottishfuturestrust.org.uk/our-work/sft-build/ schools-for-the-future/schools-development-handbook/

Sustainability in Reuse www.ads.org.uk/designforum/qualityofplace/highlightsustainability-in-re-use?typology_id=6&quality_id=4

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School renewal by refurbishment a good practice guide

www.ads.org.uk/smarterplaces