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Nightingale Associates is actively designing primary, secondary and sixth form colleges throughout the UK.
We are proud to support the Government’s agenda to change the future of school design through initiatives such as Building Schools for the Future (BSF). As founding members of the British Council of School Environments (BCSE), we are engaging with bodies such as the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF), Partnerships for Schools and Local Authority Children’s Services to ensure we are aware of current initiatives that can positively influence school design.
Gateway College is a highly-sustainable new-build college campus in Leicester, masterplanned by Nightingale Associates in 2005.
Commissioned in 2007 to provide full architectural services for this project, our designers created a solution that incorporates a triple-height atrium with all teaching, administration and ancillary accommodation located within ‘wings’. The atrium acts as the primary circulating route whilst containing dining and social space, designed to encourage a living ‘heart’.
The college has been committed to producing a building that minimises carbon footprint. Nightingale Associates integrated a number of affordable and innovative environmental solutions into the design, many of which are on display as part of the ‘visible sustainability’ concept, which encourages students to take a proactive approach to environmental issues.
This new-build post-16 facility looks to improve the accommodation at The Castle School near Newbury. The design is tailored to meet the needs of up to 30 students with various learning difficulties, including autistic spectrum disorder, and aims to maximise the spatial quality of the teaching spaces using natural daylight, the best surrounding views and protection from sources of noise.
The solution creates a sense of place in the way in which the building forms a space. For example, the inclusion of a courtyard that can be viewed from right around the building. The success of the design is in its simplicity and the engagement of the building with the site.
The new school building also aims to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’ through the specification of material with low embodied energy and the use of natural ventilation. The plan has been created to capture and utilise natural resources, such as the wind in the east/west cross-ventilation and the use of daylight suited to the classrooms.
Varndean College is a successful Sixth Form College based on a single campus located to the north of Brighton city centre.
The College’s vision is to replace substantial parts of its existing estate which are life-expired and no longer fit for propose. In addition, the College is requiring a significant expansion and provision of curriculum, support and enrichment space. A masterplan of the site has culminated in the redevelopment of the entire 13000m2 new build sixth form college.