A Creative Conversion

A Creative Conversion

Associate director Alex Proctor
explains how we turned an unwelcoming, brutalist police station into a bespoke
professional skills sixth form building.

With tight budgets and limited available land, schools are increasingly
looking for other viable solutions to their building needs. We recently converted
a former police station into an inspiring new sixth form and vocational learning
environment for Harris Aspire Academy.

There is often a misconception that a refurbishment will result in a
compromise to the building design. It is, however, possible to make a repurposed
building feel like a bespoke building, and in fact there are some inherent
benefits over a new build. As an example, at Harris Aspire Academy we were able
to maximise the use of continuous ribbon windows for the majority of the
teaching spaces, including the art department, which uses the panoramic views
as subject matter for the students’ art projects. Such extensive glazing
wouldn’t usually be affordable on a typical new build.

A sustainable option

Reuse and adaptation contribute to regeneration and sustainability on
many levels, adding to a place’s sense of identity and social cohesion. They
essentially negate the need for demolition, reducing the amount of new
materials required for the development, while reducing wastage that would
otherwise go to landfill and making economic use of a building that has stood
empty for many years.

While better-insulated new builds are expected to make up for the
higher carbon emissions during construction through lower operational
emissions, studies indicate that this could take a long time to achieve. In
response to this, we improved the building performance where at all possible
within the budget, to reduce the impact loadings on the new services
infrastructure. This included replacing the low performance windows, installing
daylight-linked, low-energy LED lighting, PIRs, and increasing the insulation
to the flat roofs and walls. Sustainable urban drainage methods were also
introduced to the scheme, as we installed an area of extensive green roof to
reduce surface water run-off from the building and decrease its impact on the
mains sewer.

Supporting wellbeing

Amidst rising rates of depression and anxiety in young people, it is
essential that we design buildings that support health and wellbeing. According
to a theory by Edward O Wilson, humans have an innate tendency to seek connections
with nature; if we lose that relationship for a long period, we can start to
show signs of stress. We incorporated the principles of biophilic design to
provide the essential psychological and physiological benefits that exposure to
nature offers. This includes full-height supergraphics illustrating natural
landscapes at each floor level. The themed supergraphics not only give the
impression of spaciousness in the corridors, but add focal interest and
facilitate wayfinding by making spaces more memorable.

To counteract the psychological effects of having no natural daylight
or views at basement level, an LED-backlit image of the sky was installed,
mimicking a rooflight to subconsciously reinforce the students’ and staff’s
innate connection to nature.

The final result

Despite initial concerns that a disused police station would not lend
itself to being repurposed as an education facility, the stakeholders, academy
and the students are delighted with the delivered design.

Gary Herbert, project director at Free Schools Capital, said: “The end
product has been delivered to a very high quality that sets the bar for other school
refurbishment projects.”