Words By Emily Martin
Images By Rachel Ferriman
PROJECT INFO
Client Heathlands School
Architects Manalo & White
Architects www.manaloandwhite.co.uk
Richard Lyndon Design www.richardlyndondesign.com
Size 250m2
Completion March 2024
HEATHLANDS SCHOOL is the UK’s largest sign-language school for deaf children and young people. Located in St Albans, Hertfordshire, and operating from its original primary school campus purpose-built in the 1970s, the school accommodates pupils from nursery through to Year 13, offering a total communication approach that encompasses British Sign Language, Sign-Supported English and spoken English.
Last autumn term, the school unveiled an inclusive classroom building custom-designed to meet the needs of deaf students, as well as optimising the setting for pupils with visual impairment or mobility disability. The new building, designed by London-based architects Manalo & White, working in collaboration with deaf architect-led practice Richard Lyndon Design, provides a supportive learning environment for primary and secondary students, unlocking space within the campus to enable the school to extend its provision to include sixth form for the first time.
The building’s green facade gives it a strong identity; in the classrooms, interiors are painted in a soft blue to offer a clear contrast between the background and the facial/ signing expressions of classroom users; light and clear sightlines are important in this building
With muted green walls and contrasting yellow entrances, the building embodies the ‘vibrancy’ and ‘playfulness’ that the students at the school described in a workshop with the architects in the early stages of the project’s development. Prioritising light and clear sightlines, it provides class settings tailored to students’ needs as well as liminal spaces beyond the classroom, which are integral for incidental learning.
‘Engaging the students at the start of this project was a critical part of the process,’ comments Richard Dougherty, director, Richard Lyndon Design. ‘Deaf people have spent their entire lives adapting to places that were not designed for them. Listening to the students’ lived experiences allowed us to strengthen their relationship with their environment. Their stories at the beginning became a creative force for the design process and generated an emphasis to provide a place that they value and feel valued in.’
The building’s green facade gives it a strong identity; in the classrooms, interiors are painted in a soft blue to offer a clear contrast between the background and the facial/ signing expressions of classroom users; light and clear sightlines are important in this building
The school’s initial brief sought a first-floor extension to an existing single-storey block, but tender winners Manalo & White and Richard Lyndon Design – believing that this proposal would be limiting, unnecessarily disruptive, costly and suboptimal – encouraged the school to consider an alternative possibility.
After conducting a detailed appraisal of the entire campus in consultation with staff and students, the architects developed a comprehensive masterplan of how the site could evolve to meet the changing needs of its learning community, with minimal disruption to the ongoing operations of the school. Occupying what was an underused corner of the school campus, ensuring ease of access during construction, and delivered for a limited budget of £1m within a narrow construction window of eight months, the launch of the new building marks the completion of the masterplan’s first phase.
The new block is designed to be simple and flexible, acknowledging and responding to students’ sensory needs. It comprises six classrooms and an outdoor teaching area linked to the wider playground.
Vaulted ceilings with rooflights on the first floor and large east-facing windows in all classrooms bring in ample daylight into the classrooms while avoiding glare. Smaller windows allow for a variety of views and enable cross-ventilation – supported by an integrated NVHR (natural ventilation with heat recycling) unit in every room.
Green walls and contrasting yellow entrances
The classrooms reject the Victorian-era pedagogical model of rows of desks facing the teacher. Instead, they adopt a consistent orthogonal layout that accommodates a deaf-friendly horseshoe desk arrangement that enables pupils in small classes of six to eight to face each other as well as the teacher, encouraging collaboration and realtime interaction.
The colour palette has been chosen to optimise the legibility of visual communication and minimise eye strain when conversing in sign language. In the classrooms, interiors are painted in a soft blue to offer a clear contrast between the background and the facial/signing expressions of classroom users. As background colours, soft blues and greens have been proven to complement and contrast effectively with a wide variety of skin tones, aiding communication as well as contributing to a tranquil atmosphere.
The building’s bold green facade gives it a strong identity within the campus while harmonising with new landscaping. Timber battens of varying widths introduce texture, and contrasting yellow on the door frames and openings assist with wayfinding, allowing those who are walking and signing to easily identify entry points. These strong visual cues support the role of peripheral vision in orientation, enhancing the navigability of the site for deaf people.
The building’s green facade gives it a strong identity; in the classrooms, interiors are painted in a soft blue to offer a clear contrast between the background and the facial/ signing expressions of classroom users; light and clear sightlines are important in this building
‘Richard Lyndon Design has been a pivotal collaborator on this project, allowing us to better understand the needs of the deaf community,’ comments Steve Fox, commercial manager, Manalo & White. ‘Embedding inventive design for inclusion is a driver for all our projects at Manalo & White. At Heathlands, the sensory experience and comfort of the students has informed every design decision.’
KEY SUPPLIERS
Carpet tiles
XGerflor
Lighting
Qvis
