Canaan Lane Primary

The three new primary schools & early years centres for City of Edinburgh Council focus on the learning environment, the pupil and teacher experience and contextual response to very different sites across Edinburgh. They provide a focal point to their respective neighbourhoods, creating significant civic contributions to their settings with generous concourses for both the school and the nursery entrances.

The new Canaan Lane responds to the conservation area setting with a natural palette of materials and geometry carefully balanced in its setting, establishing an architectural dialogue between the new school and the neighbouring buildings. The City of Edinburgh Council have shown bravery by innovating, challenging preconceived ideas of what teaching and education means and following a traditional contract route to ensure the success of the projects. Holmes Miller was an integral part of their inspiring learning spaces group formed by the Communities and Families team as a precursor to these projects. The group included head teachers and business managers from various schools across the city to learn from their collective experience to build a teaching space model that could be roled out in future projects. The outcome is a series of exciting and inventive projects, tailored solutions to suit each of the schools’ communities.

The external areas provide a foundation for the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence, where outdoor learning is recognised as fundamental. The design was developed though early dialogue with stakeholders and user groups which reinforced the need for useful, educational and stimulating indoor / outdoor spaces for the primary school. The playground focuses on greenspace, soft landscape, landform, planting and water – a biophilic response to playground design. Internally, the schools’ social areas open directly to the playgrounds, creating a direct link between interior and exterior spaces. The furniture responds to child movement and curriculum activities, and the interior graphics provide a calming environment and a sense of fun and identity. Stepping away from the institutional rigidity of the double banked corridor, a series of semi-open flexible spaces are introduced between the classrooms, providing breaks in the corridor. Natural light, cloak recesses and glazed screens giving views of activities in rooms transform the ‘corridors’ into activity spaces.

The classrooms for each age group are arranged to face each other in pairs sharing a flexible space between them, as well as having a visual connection with the classroom on the opposite side of the corridor. This will encourage pupils to interact with each other, allow collaboration between teachers, enable passive supervision from all classrooms facing the flexible area, and provide a variety of teaching opportunities that will allow children to learn through play and have a lot of fun while doing it.