John Taylor High School

Professional architectural services

This project was to design a Creative and Media teaching block for John Taylor High School that would allow the department to expand, provide new courses and meet the needs of the changing curriculum.

Our architectural vision was to create a building which was creative and innovative, whilst being conducive to a stimulating and responsive teaching and learning environment. Our initial appointment involved the carrying out of a feasibility study to analyse the most suitable location for such a building in terms of the School’s existing building infrastructure and master plan. The completion of the feasibility study highlighted the appropriate area as being towards the rear of the site towards an existing boundary. In this area, there is present an existing teaching block, which is single storey and comprising mono-pitch roofs, circa 2000. Our response was to link the two buildings via a central circulation core. The proposed architectural form was therefore to respond to the existing teaching block in terms of scale, mass and materiality.

The internal space comprises 2no. General Teaching classrooms, 2no. Multi-function classrooms, Control Room, Storage areas, Staff room, Disabled w.c. and a large Circulation area which can also be utilised for presentations and talks. One of the key considerations for the project was the acoustic design of the building to meet the requirements for the buildings function and legislative requirements.