clackmannanshire council

Narratives

Architect Narrative

It used to be, not so very long ago, that “in house” architects working for the local government designed all schools in the United Kingdom. Some were very good, indeed a few were excellent but the building fabric of most deteriorated over time, due to under investment and many became notorious for dampness, cold and inflexibility.

Today, there are no more in house architects and design work is now undertaken by architects in private practice. Still though, government schools were under funded but in a bid to stop the rot and boost the build quality for new projects, national government introduced a policy called the Private Public Partnership ( PPP), where building contractors bid to build a school at their cost and the education authority leased it back from them, say over twenty five years.

An interesting initiative but it has meant that new schools are being constructed with an eye always on the bottom line. Accountants head design and management teams and many argue that cost control and cost saving is now more important that quality of design, fitness for purpose and flexibility. Recognising that these new schools were, in most cases failing to meet the needs of pupils and teachers, Clackmannanshire Council in Stirlingshire, Scotland have commissioned gm+ad to think of how a new school could be better designed. A building which is inspirational and empathetic, flexible but rigorous. Able to meet the demands of current thinking in education and teaching.

This is our initial ideas, the first stage.

If we are successful, the school will eventually be constructed for children between the ages of 5 to 17 on a specific site in the centre of Alloa. The design proposals included in this document are for that site although the ideas could apply in buildings on other sites.

Educator Narrative

The Clackmannanshire initiative is being monitored by the Scottish Executive which has set up a think tank in tandem with the scheme. It is envisaged that the architects’ recommendations will then be incorporated within the tendering process for all state school projects in Scotland. Keir Bloomer, chief executive of Clackmannanshire Council, places current collective failings firmly at the door of the Private Public Partnership tendering procedures used to contract civic building projects.

“Since PPP started here in 1998 I’ve yet to see any evidence that these schools are designed with the best interests of pupils and staff at heart,” he says. “These alienating mass-produced units do create a powerful statement — unfortunately it’s a negative one: these buildings are good enough for kids but we wouldn’t tolerate them for adults.”

Rather than suggesting that PPP is an untenable system, however, Bloomer suggests this architectural taskforce can point the way to a bright new dawn. “The problem is that the current process was devised to convenience technicians and accountants. Contractors take the current curriculum and accommodation needs as their starting point and they promise to ‘slap up a shed’ within the budgetary requirements. What it means is that rather than getting progressive 21st century schools we sell our youngsters short with brand new facilities that are out of date before they’re even completed.”

Already collaborating on a collection of conceptual designs that will be made flesh on sites in Alva, Lornshill and initially Alloa, it is envisaged the architect responsible for the designs will work hand in hand with the successful bidders to deliver the schools.