Re - Format LLP

Mid-Sussex Special School

Mid-Sussex Special School
© Richard Warburton

MID-SUSSEX SPECIAL SCHOOL

Re-Format

ARCHITECTS
Re-Format

PHOTOGRAPHS
Richard Warburton

YEAR
2012

LOCATION
Chanctonbury Rd Burgess Hill, West Sussex United Kingdom

CATEGORY
Elementary & Middle School

Text description provided by architect.

Woodlands Meed Special School is a recently completed, £15 million development designed by Re-Format.

Mid-Sussex Special School
© Richard Warburton
Mid-Sussex Special School
© Richard Warburton

The two-storey school and nursery provides over 140 places for 2-14 year olds and shares a campus with London Meed Primary School and Oakmeeds Community College in Burgess Hill, West Sussex.

The school adopts a linar plan designed to take advantage of an extraneous site, bounded by a magnificent avenue of mature oak trees.

The new building connects the users with the beautiful setting by capturing delightful views of the trees from the central spine of the building through a series of voids in the linear form.

The courtyards open out at first floor level onto generous cantilevered terraces that break the overall linear mass into a series of smaller timber ‘houses’.

Mid-Sussex Special School
© Richard Warburton
Mid-Sussex Special School
© Richard Warburton

These punctuate the plan internally to become a string of courtyards, bringing the natural environment, light and air to the heart of the building and connecting the users with the outside world in a sensitive way.

The use of bold colours, selected by the pupils, permeate the building both internally and externally to further enhance way finding and identity for the users.

Mid-Sussex Special School
© Richard Warburton
Mid-Sussex Special School
© Richard Warburton

To pupils also produced the art work which was then used as prints on the acoustic panel and toilet wall panels.


Mid-Sussex Special School
Mid-Sussex Special School
© Richard Warburton


Mid-Sussex Special School
Ground Floor
Mid-Sussex Special School
First Floor


Mid-Sussex Special School
3D Section
Mid-Sussex Special School
Site Plan

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