BURNTWOOD SCHOOL ALLFORD HALL MONAGHAN MORRIS

摘要

The idea of a design process is saturated in mythology; not so much falsification as pedestalised creativity. Of course, creativity should be applauded, but sometimes mythologies only obfuscate. 'Is there more you can tell me that will bring me nearer the creative coalface of the school's cladding design?' I ask Allford Hall Monaghan Morris's Lukas Ochendal, one of the architects involved in the practice's Burntwood School, a 10-form entry state girls' academy project, completed one year ago. Afterwards, I suspect I've missed the point. Most projects have their trails of inspired or best-forgotten hand sketches, physical and digital models and fanciful word pictures. But the essence of Burntwood's design process lies elsewhere, in two powerful ideas you might also call principles. Thefirst is that quality should be completely gimmick-free and spread right across the board, a core principle of good design. The second involves an imaginative, constructive, sympathetic, playful appreciation of the original school, built for a smaller intake in 1958-asort of new-build retrofit. Its assets included extensive, informal and open grounds, and Leslie Martin's elegant, thoughtfully planned assembly hall and swimming pool blocks, both retained, although their local authority-designed companions were not. While quality was not applied impasto where it would be most conspicuous, four aspects of the project stand out: its phasing and organisation; the site plan; the internal layout and design of individual buildings; and the assertive, sculptural precast teaching-block facades, like a rusticated assortment of mitred frames and upright sumps in dialogue with colour-coded tiled entrance voids.