The winners of the British Council for School Environments Industry Awards have just been announced, and among them are two projects to which Buro Happold has contributed.

Bryanston School in Dorset won in the “best extension” category, for its inspiring design, as did Threeways Special School in Bath in the “special needs” category.

Threeways is a highly successful example of low-energy design, with an abundance of natural daylighting, earth tubes for pre-warming and pre-cooling ventilation air and exposed thermal mass to moderate seasonal temperature changes, all integrated with the exacting needs of a special school which caters for a wide variety of disabilities. The building includes a hydrotherapy pool and a sensory theatre, and incorporates part of an existing building.

Meanwhile, the project at Bryanston School provides new science facilities over a 3,500m2 area, with a 120-seat lecture theatre, classrooms and laboratories linked by a broad, colonnaded circulation spaces.

For both projects, Buro Happold provided a combination of structural and building services engineering, acoustic consultancy and infrastructure/traffic and transport design. Threeways was designed by B3Architects and Bryanston by Hopkins Architects.
 
Four other schools the practice was involved with were also shortlisted. In the inspiring design for secondary schools category, the Samworth Academy in Leicester, the Thomas Deacon Academy in Peterborough, and Minster School in Nottinghamshire were all commended by the panel, as was the integrated lighting solution incorporated in Bristol Brunel Academy in the ‘specialist supplier’ category.

“This is the first awards programme to focus on school buildings,” said Ty Goddard, director of the BCSE. “The quality of entries shows that investment in schools is producing fantastic projects which we can all be proud of.”

“Investment is transforming the face of education”
This is a concept Buro Happold would wholeheartedly endorse. “Huge investment is currently transforming the face of education, raising standards across all age ranges and creating modern learning environments fit for the 21st Century,” said Gavin Thompson, managing director of Buro Happold. “A key element in this investment is the educational building itself, as research shows that innovative, inspirational design can have a hugely positive effect on learning outcomes.”

Moreover, these winning schools form the latest accolade in a vibrant history of involvement in education engineering design for Buro Happold, in conjunction with leading architects such as Foster + Partners, Allies and Morrison, Wilkinson Eyre, and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.

“Buro Happold has over 20 years’ experience in the design of educational buildings, from primary and secondary schools to colleges and universities,” said Thompson. “Our buildings are safe, attractive, light and airy and are always designed around the specific requirements of the institution. We have a particular track record in creating optimum internal environments, with carefully controlled lighting, temperature and acoustics, which have a real impact on educational performance. And with our sector leading postoccupancy evaluations, we gather energy use data which is then fed back to the school or college to refine and improve operational performance and future designs.”

Buro Happold’s experience encompasses multi-million pound PFI schemes and the Building Schools for the Future schemes, setting new standards in sustainable design.

Other leading education projects which Buro Happold has worked on historically include multimillion pound PFI initiatives such as the four-school North Tyneside Schools project, and the visually stunning 10,000m2 Cork School of Music in Ireland, which includes studios, galleries and theatres as well as classrooms.

Meanwhile, the Cambridge University Centre for Mathematics brought together 25 of the University’s mathematics groups into seven pavilions housing 340 offices, while work on John Wheatley College in Glasgow has created an exemplar, low carbon, further education campus building that sets new standards in energy efficiency and sustainable design, and has achieved a BREEAM “Excellent” rating.

The practice is also working on four of the Building Schools for the Future schemes in Bristol; the first of which, the Brunel Academy, was opened by Gordon Brown in September last year. Buro Happold provided building services design, including biomass boilers to provide most of the heating and hot water load, and a rainwater harvesting system. The topping-out ceremony for the fourth school in this programme, in Hartcliffe, was held last week.

Buro Happold has also been involved with structural and building services design of many schools in the Academies Programme and is looking forward further success as part of the winning teams in the recently announced Learning Skills Council design team framework for Further Education Colleges. As multidisciplinary engineers, the practice always aims to integrate all the elements involved in a building’s design, from its architecture and engineering to the choice of material.

“We consider all factors to ensure a school or college is a user-friendly learning environment, which is fit for purpose, and meets the needs of all its different users,” said Thompson. “Over time, we have built up an understanding of the particular technical and budgetary problems that face educators, their private sector partners and stakeholders. We’re experts in identifying new ways of adding value and can provide our clients with sound advice on issues such as sustainability, energy control, durability and low-cost maintenance.”