St Bedes CE Primary School, Bolton.
Shipping container building
I was given the opportunity to put forward a proposal for a new junior block to a primary school in Bolton that had approached the practice that I work for.
I, along with my superiors was asked to produce a design proposal to meet the client’s specific requirements.
The school needed 400m2 of teaching accommodation, 64m2 of art studio space and 120m2 of ICT space along with the usual toilets and access requirements.
Being a church funded school the budget was very tight for the amount of area they required. They were also keen on the building being eco-friendly in an effort to teach the children the importance of looking after our planet.
My first thoughts were to try and create something that would be fun and inspiring for the children, an exciting place that children would enjoy seeing and learning in. My answer to this was to try and use shapes that children would recognise and associate with things other than school.
I also wanted to design something that could not only be used to teach in but also to teach with.
My first design involved splitting each individual room into singular units using colour and laying them out in an irregular fashion both in plan and in elevation resembling lego blocks. The strong geometric shape of the units and the windows meant that the building could be used as an example during lessons.
However during my research for my skinny house project I came across shipping container construction. This as the name suggests shipping containers are being fitted out and used as living and working accommodation in many successful projects around the world.
This fitted my original concept for my building whist being ultra eco-friendly. The containers are brought over here by the thousand from the far east where production of our everyday items is massive, however because we export very little back over to Asia there is a large stock pile of these containers rotting in ship yards around the coast.
I found the container to be a really versatile material to work with as you can chop and change them very easily and due to their inherent structural integrity and the fact they are very hardwearing.
On presenting my idea to the partners of the practice I was lucky enough to have my idea chosen to present to the school.
After presenting to the head teacher and the board of governors the project was given the go ahead and I was asked to finalise the design and source a contractor who had the experience and expertise to construct the building.
My search lead me to London and a company called Urban Space Management Ltd who was responsible for the renowned container city of the London
I, my boss, the head and relevant members of the board of governors went down to London
After meeting with Urban Space and having all our quires answered and conformation that my design was feasible the next step was to apply for planning permission.
Due to the fact that this is not the usual sort of application that Bolton MBC are used to getting I first met their head of planning and urban design consultant on site to discuss the proposal and answer any questions that they had. After their initial puzzled reaction to the thought of using containers in this way on this site they were very receptive to the idea and even supportive of it.
They did however suggest that we hold a meeting with the local residents to ask what they thought of the proposal that will be built on their doorstep.
I was a bit worried that they would not like the building as it is quite a different to the local vernacular in terms of materials and colour, however I was keen to point out that the form built up of singular units was not dissimilar to the terrace housing which flanks the site. The neighbours who attended the meeting however were very supportive of the proposed building and even praised it.
The project is currently being considered for planning permission and if approved will be started on site later this year.
To be continued............
