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BDP submit Waid Academy for planning

April 13 2015

BDP submit Waid Academy for planning
BDP have submitted plans for an 800 place secondary school within the Fife Town of Anstruther, which will see the majority of the existing Waid Academy demolished and replaced (with the exception of the original Victorian building) with new build facilities.

Delivered in partnership with the Scottish Futures Trust, Fife Council and BAM Construction the scheme will form part of a new education campus incorporating the existing Anstruther Primary and a shared community sports facility.

In their design statement BDP noted: “The building responds to its ‘hinterland’ location with references to the vernacular agricultural architecture of the surrounding countryside. The massing of the building involves a plinth at ground floor level which runs the perimeter of the building and grounds it within its environment.

“Above at first and second floor level, two-storey cladding continuously wraps itself around the building. This separation of the ground floor to the levels above, not only reflects the spaces within the building with the ground floor consisting of predominantly community spaces and the above floors being school spaces, but also helps to break up the massing of the building and bring it down to a more human scale at the base.”

Clad in a mixture of facing brick and zinc the project includes a projecting stone ‘harbour wall’ intended to screen external spaces.
The main entrance space will incorporate a cafe and library
The main entrance space will incorporate a cafe and library
The new school forms part of a larger 'education campus'
The new school forms part of a larger 'education campus'

3 Comments

Lessels
#1 Posted by Lessels on 13 Apr 2015 at 17:01 PM
"references to the venacular agricultural architecture" Aye, that would be a tattie shed then.
Sven
#2 Posted by Sven on 13 Apr 2015 at 21:57 PM
“The building responds to its ‘hinterland’ location with references to the vernacular agricultural architecture of the surrounding countryside. The massing of the building involves a plinth at ground floor level which runs the perimeter of the building and grounds it within its environment."

Really? I see an industrial building circa anytime since 1970. Anstruther has preserved a rich vernacular Scottish architecture: did the architect never visit the town? Are modern interpretations of crow step gables and corbels too much to ask for? It is too late to fix as the design has been won but this is not a building for the next 50-75 years/
mick
#3 Posted by mick on 15 Apr 2015 at 12:52 PM
In the industrial estate opposite the school site a there is located a local authority environmental services depot which was built in the 70's/80's. That building exhibits an aspiration and understanding of architecture which clearly the BDP proposal totally lacks.
It is quite shocking to witness such obvious retardation in standards over this last 35 years. New schools ..... maybe.....reduced standards.....certainly.

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