Urban Vision Help Deliver Schools for the Future

Urban Vision has helped deliver three new schools for Phase 1 of the Lancashire Building Schools for the Future Programme.

Working closely with Capita Symonds, the Urban Vision design team has been responsible for the interior design element at the projects at Burnley, Nelson and Padiham, with a specific brief to help transform the way learning takes place and reflect the needs of the wider community in line with the governments Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative.

The £29 million Pendle Vale facility in Nelson, brings together two existing schools under one roof with the aim of achieving greater integration between the two. The sloping site has been used to create a new local landmark and contains sports pitches and indoor sports resources; all built to Sports England standards to support the school’s aim to achieve specialist sports college status. 

Costing £31 million to build and equip, Burnley Campus is the largest of the three sites and contains facilities for nursery, primary and sixth form schooling, as well as a children’s centre, a library, a faith centre, all weather sports pitches, a fitness centre, climbing wall, sports hall and a hydrotherapy pool.

The £20 million Shuttleworth College in Padinham features an impressive entrance area dominated by a dramatic floor-to-ceiling atrium that echoes the designs of modern office buildings.  Facilities include a dance studio, sports hall, fitness room, tennis courts, all weather sports pitches, a café and a faith centre.
The emphasis in the design is on an affordable building envelope which allows maximum impact within the learning spaces, achieved by focusing on very good external wall to floor ratios, and attempts to get as much of the main body of building under a single roof- a simple square deep plan form with a highly emotive interior style.

Feedback from the schools, which opened at the start of the current academic year have indicated their delight with the buildings as a place to work and deliver learning.