3rd October 2011
TPS Model Building exercise with school pupils proves big success
A class of thirty, year five children from Barley Mow Primary school, Gateshead, have been given the chance to construct a scale model of their new school with the help of TPS, the design and engineering consultancy responsible for the project’s delivery.
TPS (part of Carillion plc) completed the design and delivery of Barley Mow Primary School in Birtley; the first new project of the Primary Capital Programme for South Tyneside & Gateshead (STaG). The new school facilities replace the existing Barley Mow Primary School that stood on the same site.
As the existing school has a strong and established community presence, the design process involved three months of engagement meetings with the school and its stakeholders before a design was finalised and submitted for planning.
This engagement process used a rich array of presentation techniques to explain the design concepts and proposals, including sketches, artistic impressions and computer generated visuals. In addition physical card models were used to initially describe spaces and then ultimately to explain the form of the building.
TPS took the opportunity to not only overcome the school’s desire for a model but also capture a valuable way to involve the children, by offering them the chance build a 1:75 model of their own new school. Daniel Johnson, Associate, TPS Midlands Architecture took over the class and headed the session, as he explains:
“We ‘adopted’ a class of year five children for the day, and with our architecture team, we set about building a 1:75 scale model. TPS’s David Ryan pre-prepared what were essentially ‘flat packed’ sections of wall and roofing for the new school and provided coloured elevations to scale for the children to assemble. We divided the class into teams and assigned each team a section of the ‘flat pack’ to put together. We also rallied support from Inspired Spaces (also part of Carillion plc) and had a number of volunteers leading a small group each with the exercises set.”
Johnson continues: “We introduced the children to the concept of scale and with our drawings used a 3D graphic model on a projector to explain ‘plans,’ ‘sections’ and ‘elevations’ so that they could relate to the model that they were assembling.”
The day proved to be a huge success with the model taking pride of place initially in the existing school’s reception. TPS’s innovative efforts proved to be a success for Inspired Spaces to such an extent that TPS has now set a precedent amongst the Primary Capital Programme for STaG for all schemes, including those by other consultants.
“This is a great opportunity for some of the team to interact with our Clients, the children, and to pick up valuable key skills in engaging with a young audience. It also affords us better understanding of the day-to-day skills, professional lives and needs of the teachers that have informed some of TPS’s latest school designs” states Johnson.
TPS were initially appointed by Inspired Spaces to provide Architecture, Interior Design and Mechanical and Engineering Consultancy services to the Barley Mow school project. The brief required the design of a new build one form entry primary school for 210 children together with a 26-place Day Nursery.
As part of the Inspired Spaces team, TPS made four separate presentations to the local community, consulting at different stages of the design process prior to submitting the planning application. This approach involved the community in the design of the new school and its site, with the views expressed in the sessions influenced the final design.
In addition, Inspired Spaces’ stakeholder involvement extended to arranging and hosting a tour of the steel foundry that was fabricating the frame for the building. The school council were elected to go and the event was enjoyed by all, culminating with the children having their initials welded into one of the steel beams. This steelwork can be seen in the entrance lobby to the new school.
“We have found TPS’s approach and attitude to be a refreshing mix of professionalism and concern to be as empathetic as possible towards the needs of our school and community. The feeling that has pervaded all of our sessions has been one of teamwork,” says David Hewitson, Head Teacher of Barley Mow Primary School.
www.tpsconsult.co.uk
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