St Edmund Campion School Building Visit

When St Edmund Campion School in Maidenhead raised the necessary funds for their much needed Early Years Learning Centre Pavilion back in 2003 they approached Danks Badnell Architects with a very clear brief. The School was keen that the finished design should address their main objective of giving the children a quality learning environment designed to provide a bright and comfortable space in which the children would spend the day.

Here was an opportunity to use an innovative but buildable design incorporating as many passive design elements as possible and also to use alternative technologies for heating and cooling. The issues of minimising embodied energy in the materials specified, as well as low level of toxicity, were also addressed. By considering sustainability issues in as many elements as possible from the orientation of the building to the final finished details and services, the project architects managed to avoid the common inevitable cut-backs in public buildings for value engineering to have a detrimental effect on the finished building.

The New Early Years Learning Centre Pavilion sits comfortably among the 1970's and 1980's collection of school buildings and has enriched the playground and surrounding playing fields with a contemporary yet not imposing presence. While adding much needed teaching space it will not add unaffordable costs to the School, the parents and above all to the Environment.

Tour leader: Sandra Orlando-Payne, Danks Badnell LLP