August 20 2021

South east Edinburgh pupils have begun the new term in style after Will Rudd Davidson engineers and Holmes Miller architects moved mountains to deliver Frogston Primary School.

Marrying outdoor learning and nature with modern teaching accommodation the new school delivers column-free circulation spaces and an unusually complex roof design designed to emulate the undulating nature of the Pentland Hills.

Project engineer William Taylor of Will Rudd Davidson explained: “The prominent roof arrangement makes a great feature with multiple peaks and troughs to replicate the Pentland Hills. To deliver the structure a series of inventive steel connections were adopted and we worked closely with the architect and construction team to ensure they did not compromise the architectural vision.”

The greenfield build is situated on the junction of Burdiehouse and Frogston Roads and is one of three schools currently being delivered by Will Rudd Davidson in the fast-growing south-eastern quarter of the city.

An on-site nursery is provided around a central shared space with each element given separate entrances. 

10 Comments

#1 Posted by E=mc2 on 21 Aug 2021 at 01:56 AM

Workmanship on the brickwork is awful and so is the detailing.

#2 Posted by Clark of Werks on 21 Aug 2021 at 15:09 PM

Hopefully there's support for them brick walls.

#3 Posted by HM on 23 Aug 2021 at 09:50 AM

I suppose you would know all about awful brickwork John and poor detailing

#4 Posted by Robin B's Discount on 24 Aug 2021 at 13:58 PM

For a minute I thought I was looking at the Pentland Hills... hmmmmm

Despite the narrative it looks like just about every other school built in the last decade. Not a bad thing, as they all look good, but lets call an apple and apple.

#5 Posted by E=mc2 on 24 Aug 2021 at 16:11 PM

@3 HM

Who's John?

Look at staining already on that corner junction above CCTV and evidence already of streaking on the render as it is on the same plane as the brickwork. Poor detailing. This is Scotland where its wet. Detailing like this is Greece just disnae work here. Brickwork has not been mixed and blended from different batches hence the rather obvious patchwork quilt effect in some of the pictures too. Shall I go on?

#6 Posted by Clark of Werks on 24 Aug 2021 at 22:18 PM

#5 spell check 'join' ?

#7 Posted by Malandro1966 on 25 Aug 2021 at 09:49 AM

I live close to this and I agree that some of the detailing is poor. For instance, at the far right hand side of the last picture you can see staining to the brickwork. What isn't obvious is a pipe exiting through the brickwork beneath the valley gutter. It extends just a couple of inches and although I would hope it is just some sort of occasional overflow for an internal downpipe, it is obvious that quite a lot of water has already dribbled down over the bricks, resulting in staining before the building is even fully open. There are also many large gaps in the brickwork beneath where the roof cladding overlaps the top course which they couldn't be bothered filling with mortar. Rain will likely get driven in there and I suspect they will have a few leaks.

#8 Posted by The sinik on 25 Aug 2021 at 10:58 AM

Speaking of staining, anyone seen the state of the stonework on the new Park Quadrant development? The ingoes look like the inside of a 15 year old unkept fishtank.

#9 Posted by E=mc2 on 26 Aug 2021 at 13:37 PM

Another HM project. Given their lengthy history you would think they would have nailed a lot of these basics and practices down within the office.

#10 Posted by Brick-Top on 31 Aug 2021 at 12:58 PM

Holmes Miller are unfortunately winning a reputation for poor detailing across the board and it's not limited to this one project. I'm not sure if this is because the talent pool isn't there following the covid-exodus, or whether they just don't care enough about the end product and are more interested in 'getting on to the next one'.

In any case, there's not a great deal of innovation going on here, which is fine because the building serves it's purpose and is not too bad. It's the detailing that once again badly lets down this once-decent firm.

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