NEW ELLIS BUILDING AT ELLIS GUILFORD SCHOOL
Work has recently been completed on the first phase of a major redevelopment scheme at Ellis Guilford School & Sports College on Bar Lane, Old Basford, Nottingham. The school has had little capital investment since the 1960s and has undergone a major improvement programme, overseen by local architects, Maber Associates. The aim of the redevelopment is to improve the standard of the buildings and facilities, whilst also allowing the school’s capacity to increase at September 2004.
The first phase, costing around £5.2 million, involved the relocation of several temporary classrooms, the building of substantial new teaching and administration blocks and the demolition of a dilapidated late 1920s classroom block, inappropriate for teaching today’s curriculum. Major upgrading works were also being carried out to the fabric of the 1960s classroom blocks.
The new and refurbished buildings provide accommodation for a range of curriculum and non-curriculum activities. A new suite of art classrooms was placed at the top floor of the new curved block to maximise natural lighting and produce impressive views across the city as inspiration for the pupils.
New food technology and design technology classrooms were arranged on the levels below, in addition to the new geography technology departments and additional science classrooms. A new IT suite and a new learning resource centre are located in the rotunda and adjacent building at the frontage of the site. The rotunda provides an imposing new reception area that improves access and security. In addition, new school offices will help to provide the support facilities necessary to sustain new teaching practices.
As you enter the site, the Rotunda is intended as the main feature to provide the new focal point for the school. To emphasise the entrance, a ceramic tiled wall slides from outside through the glazing to the interior reception space. The rotunda provides a dramatic circular space to house the Learning Resource Centre at First Floor level.
To the side of the rotunda a wing building helps to emphasise the frontage of the School to Bar Lane. This administration wing is connected to the existing 1960s block behind via a link bridge to complete the circulation around the building.
Curving dramatically away from the entrance area is the main three-storey teaching wing of the new Ellis Building. Following early design consultation with the pupils, it was identified that long, straight corridors were disliked and that a more curvilinear, organic approach would be preferred. This curved wing steps back at higher level and uses different materials to create a hierarchy to the elevation.
Through the form and materials used, the building is deliberately intended to present an adult environment for learning, with materials that might be used in a building housing a technology or research use.
Linking these spaces are a number of circulation areas, deliberately intended to be wide enough to encourage easy, relaxed circulation and enforce the open, light environment of the buildings. In particular, use of the existing 1960s teaching block was revitalised by the addition of a four storey glazed circulation corridor along its length.
Maber Associates were commissioned as consultant architects to Nottingham City Council Design & Property Services, who were responsible for the scheme from inception and design to planning approval. A number of other local firms of construction professionals were appointed, including the main contractor Willmott Dixon Construction, Turner & Townsend as quantity surveyors and EP Consulting as Mechanical and Electrical consultants.
In order to deliver the project on time and within budget, a strong co-ordinated team effort was required by all the members of the design team. In addition to the professionals previously mentioned, the School and the Education Authority were involved in a process that demanded difficult and complex decisions on a large building site in the centre of a fully functioning school. Ultimately the hard work of the design team paid off when the School opened on time to allow the new school term to begin.
An Artist in Residence was involved in producing a design for the landscaped courtyard in the heart of the development. Pupils’ work has been incorporated into mosaics and low level walling, and a new water feature has been added as a centrepiece to the design.
Pupil involvement was also important in the development of the interior design of the buildings. Maber Associates worked closely with the school to develop a colour scheme that is contemporary, but calming. Different colour schemes and patterns are used in different areas and at each level of the building to create an identity for each area.
Following the completion of this project, the next phase of the redevelopment
scheme will be to further expand the sports facilities at the school in
line with its Sports College status. Maber Associates has designed a new
£1 million Sports Centre that will be financed by the Government’s
New Opportunities Fund and which will complement the recently completed
new LTA standard tennis facilities at the school. Work on site is to begin
imminently and will ultimately form part of the collection of new buildings
of which the School can be proud.
Andrew Woolf, Maber Associates
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