Star quality

Better procurement
Architect and head teacher on speedy systems and strong relationships that made the newbuild Passmores Academy in Essex a transformational project

Passmores has been a wonderful project to be involved with. Essex County Council sowed the seeds of its success at the outset by the way it elected to procure it. Commissioned outside central government funding streams, it was funded directly by the council and procured through an existing contractor-led framework – Smarte East, an alliance of three East of England local authorities.

Fast work
From our perspective as architects, securing the project with contractor Willmott Dixon was a model of brevity: a two-week design esquisse, an office-based interview for the client group to see how we work, a visit to a building delivered by the contractor and a competitive interview at which we presented our initial design concepts. A total of 131 hours were expended within less than a month to win the commission. Contrast this with the process of competing for a single BSF sample school: typically more than 4,000 hours over a year.

Our enthusiasm for the process, however, is not about efficiency but the relationships we were able to build from the outset as a result, and the positive impact they had on the eventual outcome. Working with Passmores has been a true privilege. First the school invited us, the contractor and the authority representatives, to attend its residential inset days, which focussed on the brief for the new build. This allowed us to meet the staff and immerse ourselves in the mechanics of the school, enabling us to build a rapid understanding of what makes Passmores what it is – already a successful school against the odds – and what it needed to thrive.

A tight project development group was established, consisting of the head, the authority sponsor and contractor, and key representatives from the school’s senior management and governors. The small size of this group was critical. Together we developed the brief and initial design options, each of which satisfied the brief in different ways.

Working as one
Through workshops led by the Sorrell Foundation, students were also invited to write their own briefs, with toilets emerging, perhaps predictably, as their number one issue.
Of the initial options, the client’s choice was unanimous. The radial design with wings of simple learning accommodation radiating from a central space matched its statement of: ‘One building, one community, one purpose’. Essex planning authority initially took some persuasion that it was right for Harlow, but they duly were and the design has been chosen by Essex Design Initiative as an exemplar project.

Ben Marston is associate director at Jestico+Whiles

PASSMORES ACADEMY

A little understanding
Passmores academy was born on 1 September 2011. The journey from a blank piece of paper to finished building taught me many things about the process of designing a new school. People use the term transformational far too much and the last thing I wanted was for a practice to enter into our school proclaiming how they would ‘transform’ Passmores by giving me a wall that moves; thankfully Jestico + Whiles didn’t.

What made the process and, therefore, the finished product, such a success was the time and energy the practice invested in connecting with the school and its ambitions. It understood that the only way to improve what we do was by finding out how we got to where we are and where we wanted to go. Jestico+Whiles designed a building that not only matched our aspirations, but pushed them even higher.

It was vital that the building allowed the whole community to gather and interact in the school as often as possible, and Jestico+Whiles’ radial design means we can do that at every hour of each day. The ‘heart space’ has become a place of formal and informal meetings, of work, play and relaxation. The natural light and openness makes being in the building a pleasure for us all.

So, to use that unmentionable word, I have to admit that it has been transformational for us. In the first term we have seen an 80% reduction in incidents caused by poor behaviour, 300% increased uptake of school meals and 3-4 minute increase in teaching time for each lesson due to improved movement around the building.

Just one of these factors alone would be remarkable, but taken together they show just how much of a success the work of all of the people involved in creating the new Passmores has been.

The members of staff, students and wider community are very proud of the new landmark building that you see as you enter Harlow from the M11. The lives of our young people are being positively affected every day in a building that didn’t take hundreds of consultants or long-winded processes; just a team of dedicated professionals all working for a common interest.

Vic Goddard is head teacher at Passmores Academy