Harnham Infant and Junior Schools
Harnham Infant and Junior Schools schools operate independently but they share a site, and as such, through incremental development and evolving needs, this led to a mixing of accommodation and a blurring in lines of security. The project brief was to develop a permanent upgrade to a series of disjointed, temporary classrooms at and upgrade the accommodation to fully accessible facilities for less abled pupils.
The schools required a maximum amount of flexible accommodation and needed the project to be deliverable within the constraints that come from designing around live tight sites. The design team and contractors worked closely with the client, Wiltshire Council, to achieve their aspirations. Adopting a Design & Build procurement route ensured Wiltshire Council were able to bring the contractor on board from the outset, working with the design team to fully engage with the key stakeholders ensuring we understood their specific requirements and were able to design and deliver accordingly.
Along with the functional requirement for additional classroom space and secure outdoor facilities, SRA took the opportunity to look at improving the teaching environment and the connection and flow of the circulation in and around the buildings. Through a careful process of consultation and refinement, we achieved an improved definition between Infant and Junior schools, additional external amenity space connecting classrooms with nature to engage the pupils with the outside and upgrade to the existing access to the schools.
Through clear and constructive engagement we were able to help the schools navigate the decision-making process, design and successful delivery of the buildings, creating inspiring teaching environments and offering additional capacity and flexibility moving forward.
