Education is about channelling, developing and releasing the potential of every member of the community. We believe architecture can help people unleash that potential: directly by inspiring ideas and imaginations, and by facilitating the network of formal and informal social contact that helps individuals to learn.
Architecture can optimise conditions for learning. Attractive and functional spaces can also be flexible, catering to changing patterns of learning, the needs of different generations and social groups, and responding to new technology.
Ancillary spaces can foster social contact between different groups within the community, that nurtures a sense of belonging and pride in the institution, and underpins its social and educational role.
Linking imaginative and responsive design ideas to the construction process that delivers them is the key to making better buildings. We have proven the value of this approach in the residential and commercial sector, but our work with schools, colleges and universities shows how much it can also contribute to education.
In particular our knowledge of the construction industry means we can ensure that tight budgets are spent on what really matters, that the immovable deadlines that all academic institutions have are met, and that any potential benefits in the site are maximised.
Working with the DfES on the Building Schools for the Future initiative gave us the opportunity to research the underlying needs of educational buildings. Each institution has its own version of these needs, and the best way of realising them depends on the particular pattern of learning it pursues, its site and community links and the way it procures and funds its buildings.
Our understanding of these variables makes us ideally suited to finding the most value in the construction process to suit the individual needs of each client.
We believe the ultimate test of an educational building is the contribution it makes to society. That can happen in many ways depending on the type of institution.
In all cases imaginative design can make the purpose of the buildings clearly legible. That gives them an identity, and whatever level and method of learning they provide, shows how design can help to make education an integral strand of life across an entire community.