Exemplar Designs

On 12 February Prime Minister Tony Blair and School Standards Minister David Miliband unveiled the fourteen local education authority projects that will spearhead the Government's Building Schools for the Future programme to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in England. An estimated 180 schools across the country will benefit from a share of £2.2 billion capital investment in the first wave of the programme due to commence in 2005-06 in the following LEAs:

• Bradford
• Bristol
• Gateshead and South Tyneside
• Knowsley
• Leeds
• Manchester
• Newcastle-upon-Tyne
• Newham
• Sheffield
• Solihull
• Southwark, Greenwich and Lewisham
• Stoke-on-Trent
• Sunderland
• Waltham Forest

Building Schools for the Future introduces a radical new model for the design, procurement and building of the secondary school estate at a local level. A new body, Partnerships for Schools, will work with each LEA and a private sector partner to develop the local school estate concept and construct, maintain and operate the new facilities.

David Miliband also unveiled the eleven primary and secondary exemplar designs commissioned from some of the best architects in the country. The designs incorporate the most modern concepts for extended schools and special educational needs, as well as innovative ideas for the schools of tomorrow including 'all-through' schools, and 'schools within schools'.

Sharon Wright, Managing Director of School Works, welcomed the thinking behind the designs. "These exemplars provide a range of ideas about what schools of the future could be like. We have been closely involved in the exemplar process and are delighted that schools will have this additional resource as they think about how to implement their own vision for the future. We would, however, caution schools against thinking of these designs as 'blueprints'. They have been developed to RIBA Stage C Outline Design, and require a significant amount of additional work to reflect an individual school’s aspirations and needs."

Further details are available at www.teachernet.gov.uk/exemplars.

The five firms invited to develop exemplar designs for primary schools are:

• Building Design Partnership Ltd - Inner City
• Cottrell and Vermeulen Architecture Ltd
• Dobson White Boulcott (Sarah Wigglesworth Architects) - Inner City
• Marks Barfield Ltd
• Walters and Cohen Partnership

The five firms invited to develop exemplar designs for secondary schools are:

• Alsop architects - Inner City
• de Rijke Marsh Morgan (DRMM)
• Mace Ltd (RTKL architects)
• Penoyre and Prasad Architects - Inner City
• Wilkinson Eyre Architects Limited

The firm invited to develop the exemplar design for an all-through school is:

• Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects

School Works has been closely involved in advising DfES at all stages of the Exemplar Design development process. We expect that the designs will be made widely available early in 2004.