Cut-price modular school designs unveiled
October 2 2012
The new primary and secondary designs are said to be more efficient and sustainable than their BSF counterparts, reducing ‘wasted space’ in secondary’s by 15% and 5% in primaries – whilst maintaining the same standard of facilities.
Contractors can choose to develop these standardised plans into detailed schemes, or propose alternatives of equivalent cost to £1,113 sq/m.
Mike Green, director of capital at the Education Funding Agency, said: “These designs will ensure that new schools can be built to effective designs and specifications, be simple to maintain and energy efficient. And they can be built far faster than many have previously and for far less money.
“Ultimately they will enable as many schools as possible to receive investment from the funding available and deliver an excellent environment for the children and communities they serve.”
BSF was scrapped by the incoming coalition government in 2010 amidst claims that designing each school individually was incurring unnecessary consultancy fees and duplication of work.
Baseline designs have been prepared for a 1,200 place finger block secondary, 'superblock' secondary and 420 place school and nursery
Previous schools are said to have suffered from dark corridors, poor ventilation and inadequate classrooms
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8 Comments
#1 Posted by boaby wan on 2 Oct 2012 at 12:15 PM
what an inspiring place to educate our children
#2 Posted by SAndals on 2 Oct 2012 at 13:13 PM
Crikey - seriously cheap @ £1,100sq m. Exclusions?
Is it modular construction or modular design?
Atkins looked at this a few years back with uninspiring results.
Nothing wrong with a degree of standardisation if care is taken to ensure the kit of bits are high quality from the outset.
At this cost, however, it will be the non-teaching spaces and the finishes that will suffer.
Is it modular construction or modular design?
Atkins looked at this a few years back with uninspiring results.
Nothing wrong with a degree of standardisation if care is taken to ensure the kit of bits are high quality from the outset.
At this cost, however, it will be the non-teaching spaces and the finishes that will suffer.
#3 Posted by murphy on 2 Oct 2012 at 13:14 PM
maybe in Glasgow they could just move all the schools into the 60s tower blocks that they have been tearing down. that would save lots of money.
#4 Posted by Bill Simpson on 3 Oct 2012 at 10:09 AM
I think the design proposals look stunning. I love the hierarchy of learning subtly suggested by the lime green and contrasting cornflower blue interior decor. I also like the informality of teaching highlighted by the "seemingly random" seating layouts. And the internal voids - wow! Don't get me started on the natural light dissipating between the floor plates.
#5 Posted by Jonathan on 3 Oct 2012 at 10:22 AM
First comment that causes me to sigh is 'wasted space.' Worked on a PPP school few years ago and the first thing to go was the social spaces, break out, large entrances for kids to meet etc. Spent months on designing a nice school only to spend further months on 'cost cutting.' Appreciate that everything needs to be efficient and economical but we need to be careful we are not creating 1960s 'betts' schools. Images look not bad though....
#6 Posted by Baxendale on 3 Oct 2012 at 15:31 PM
Truly rancid for too many reasons
#7 Posted by Grahame White on 4 Oct 2012 at 10:37 AM
There is so much design guidance on schools, each with its own emphasis on Firmness, Commodity and Delight. This "Prison" design looks like it forgot a couple of the elements of architecture.
OWLarchitecture.com can however work with any brief - this is a new brief is it not?
OWLarchitecture.com can however work with any brief - this is a new brief is it not?
#8 Posted by Ray Davis on 4 Oct 2012 at 11:44 AM
oh no not CLASP schools again. There is nothing new under the sun !
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