Model behaviour...

We have recently started work on a new extension for a secondary school in Derby. The project is for a new block to include vital additional classrooms adjacent to the entrance to the existing school. Our development models are currently exploring means of linking into the strong existing geometry and axis of the site and school.

The working drawings for the Cow Shed barn conversion in Stanton are now almost completed. Alongside the drawings for the underground extension and interventions into the existing barn we have been exploring the detail as a computer model to walk-through with the client. We're hoping this project will start on site in the Spring.

As winter is almost over, we've started thinking about how the sponsorship money we raised last year for Ashgate Croft can help in the gardens of the Independent Living Unit. We started discussing the possibilities with Architecture students from the University of Nottingham and we're looking forward to developing ideas with them and Ashgate Croft School so we can start planting as soon as the weather improves!

Playful incidents...

We posted our Expression of Interest for the Kedleston Hall 'Playful Incident' competition last week. We're waiting to hear if we have made the shortlist of 3, but our hopes are fading as time goes on. Still, we had great fun making this model to show our initial concept for the project with two towers projecting from the woodland canopy on axis with the Hall and facing each other across the valley.

We've also been busy working on a planning application for a site in Matlock Green. The scheme is for a new apartment block to sit in the grounds of a former pub that is already being converted into flats. On the other side of the site are a pair of semi-detached Art-Deco style houses, so our proposal had to balance between the historic pub and white rendered Art-Deco style houses.

The Horseshoe site, Matlock Green

Finally, progress from Nethergate  - with the windows almost complete and scaffolding removed from the roof of the new Assembly Hall, the new school entrance is starting to take shape.

Nethergate Special School, Nottingham - new entrance

Happy New Year!

It was a hectic week for the start of the new year in the office, straight into meetings to check on site progress. In Nottingham works on Nethergate school have advanced greatly in the last few weeks, the high level clerestory windows and roof to the new build are being installed, and the refurbished areas of the existing building are now being painted.

Interior view of the new Assembly hall

View of new canopies outside refurbished classrooms.
Nethergate School, Nottingham

The new extension is scheduled for completion in April to allow the school to transfer across before works on the remaining existing building commences in the second phase of the project.

A couple of us also went out for a walk in the Derbyshire countryside at the weekend to check out the site for a new competition. The entry deadline is fast approaching though - hopefully we will make some time later this week to work on the idea and will post some images soon! Here's a little teaser for now - see if you can recognise where it is...