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PROJECT REPORT: EDUCATION & RESEARCH FACILITIES
“The airtightness achieved was largely made possible because of the CLT” Clara Garriga
the existing school, not just for acoustics but also for fire purposes,” she explains. “We then also had to keep a good distance from the original school building, trying not to have windows overlooking, and to keep nice outdoor spaces around the new pavilion and existing school.” She continues: “It was an important technical requirement that took a lot of consideration; keeping enough distance to the boundaries while not reducing the playground space.”
Planning was also a potential sticking
point, with the site’s location in the Marchmont conservation area and the original school’s grade-B listed status. “Planning was highly involved, especially in the early stages,” explains Garriga. “It’s a very beautiful area, so the planners were looking for something that wouldn’t impact negatively on the context, noting a preference for the pavilion not to be seen from the street. They were very focused on the volume, and avoiding overshadowing and imposing on neighbours.” They designed the building as distinctly modern, not mimicking the original school
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but complementing it, and the planning department agreed with this approach. The design solution took cues from its surrounding context, relating to volume and height, such as keeping the horizontal lines level with the height of the terraces along the street. “There was a lot of discussion with planning on how this could sit next to the original building without trying to copy any of the features,” says Garriga. “That really led to some of the design decisions such as the stonework and some of the horizontal lines we picked from the stonework. We tried to keep it quite simple but in dialogue with the original building.” Overall, planners agreed the proposal was “respectful of the setting,” Garriga says.
Going passive
One thing that impacted the budget and the design further down the line was the decision to aim for Passivhaus certification. Discussions for what to do with the site first began in late 2018, and it wasn’t until just before 2020 that the idea was first proposed by the council, who had implemented a policy to consider a Passivhaus approach
ADF JANUARY 2024
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