PROJECT REPORT: EDUCATION & RESEARCH FACILITIES 35


as the architects, the council and school, also present in these meetings were interior designers, teachers and headteachers, and staff working in nursery settings. “It was a mix of specialities, all having this open discussion on what makes a good space.” This notion of identifying ‘what makes a good educational space’ was the key driver and led to the optioneering of possible forms. “The actual shape or form of the classrooms can be very different,” Garriga says, “so having a discussion where we get everybody keen to design something that’s tailored to different schools and clients is so important.”


Holmes Miller were certain that adding more modular classrooms wasn’t the answer, and suggested creating something larger that connected with the main building, or a standalone building. Having decided upon the latter option, the team then considered the teaching that would happen within, and looked at the possibility


ADF JANUARY 2024


of creating a shared space for the whole school to use, locating the new classrooms in the main building and then relocating elements such as the library into the new building. “It really transpired that what they needed was a purpose-designed ‘Primary 1’ space,” Garriga explains. She refers to the Scottish equivalent of Year 1, which children enter direct from nursery. Given that Primary 1 children are only four and five years old, it opened a whole new range of discussions. “Primary 1 is so different to what’s required as you progress through the years,” says Garriga. “It’s almost more like a nursery in many respects, it’s play-based learning and teaching them to be more independent and confident, rather than a more formal type of teaching.” She says that designing for this age group “really gave us the opportunity of opening up the space and creating an open plan, flexible accommodation between the spaces, having a connection between


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