Brannel Performing Arts School

Awards: targeting BREEAM Excellent, shortlisted in the World Architecture Awards for Education Design 2010.

We undertook extensive consultation to ensure that our new school design for Brannel met our client's brief. Brannel Performing Arts School near St Austell in Cornwall, the only UK school specialising in performing arts with English, wanted its specialisms as its focal point without neglecting the other subjects. The brief set ambitious environmental objectives and demanded a highly flexible, reconfigurable design for 750 pupils aged 11-16.

Our design features a purpose-built theatre and performing arts spaces, with other areas including: shared circulation and activity space; directed learning spaces for very large groups, using flexible partition walls; extendable, reconfigurable traditional classrooms; and an assortment of small and collaborative learning spaces. The school also has facilities for a 15-place Area Resource Base to support and integrate students with special needs into mainstream education. Sustainable design was crucial, and the building is set to achieve BREEAM Excellent rating on completion in summer 2011.