July 5 2010

Doubt may hang over much of the current Building Schools for the Future programme but one area where things are still progressing apace is Oldham where Aedas have just appointed as architects for a £175m school estates contract.

Working with Balfour Beatty the practice will rework the town’s education infrastructure through a mixture of new build and refurbishment through to 2015.

The first project in this programme will be a new Oldham RC High School valued at £30m which is due to go on site early next year.

Accommodating 1,650 pupils the school even incorporates a chapel at the heart of the school which is designed to impart cathedral like volume through use of a “grillage structure” supported on a ring beam.

Terraces are punched deep into the plan to draw light and air into the interior which boasts a spacious central space to aid circulation and promote passive supervision.

A dual aspect to residential homes on one side and playing fields to the other is resolved through use of civic and private elevations.

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