New Nursery Project Overview

Transcription

1 New Nursery Project Overview 1 Erection of New Nursery Keele University wishes to improve its campus facilities and as part of this effort, a new Nursery Building is to be erected. The new Nursery is to replace the existing which has been in operation since 1989 and has now well exceeded its expected life span and is becoming more and more difficult to maintain. The Nursery provides a valuable service for staff, students and community users and the new facility will help enhance the children s learning experience. The new nursery is to provide an outstanding service to parents and children from Keele University and the surrounding areas. The University is aspiring to obtain an Ofsted Outstanding and a BREEAM Very Good rating. In order to address the experience and concerns from different parties, the design of this new facility has been developed in consultation with the End Users, Parents, Ofsted and the Planning Authorities. As far as possible the building has been future proved to meet possible changing requirements.

2 2 The Site The building is to be located in a triangular- shaped sloping site. The perimeter of the site is clearly defined by a temporary car park on its South side, a primary vehicular route on the East side and a side road serving the existing nursery to the West. Most of the perimeter of the site enjoys a spine of young trees which further define the site. The site is fully visible as one approaches it from the higher ground end on the North Side. The location of the building within the site has been determined mostly by two factors: the existing site levels and the need for a building orientation that would maximise energy efficiency. It is proposed that the new nursery should be served by 35 No parking

3 spaces providing a 1:4 parking space/ No of children ratio. 3 The Building The new nursery is to comprise home bases for children aged from 0-5 years of age together with other nursery support facilities. Additionally the nursery is to provide generous external play areas where children can explore and learn. The building has the potential to be open from 8am to 6pm 5 days a week as any other standard teaching facility within the university. The building comprises three volumes which are linked by a wide corridor that wraps around an internal courtyard space where a covered play area is proposed. All home-bases and ancillary facilities are directly accessible from this circulation spine which provides views to the internal courtyard and brings light into the heart of the building. The internal courtyard of the building enjoys the presence of a tent structure that shades the building minimising overheating and shelters the children from the rain while they play outside. It is envisaged that this courtyard would also work as an external classroom in some occasions. Access to the building for parents, children and staff is provided through the South Block which is directly accessible from the car park. Levelled access has been incorporated into the scheme to ensure that wheelchair users can access the facility without difficulty. The building has been designed to provide full DDA access to all areas. An external store for buggies and bicycles has been proposed near the entrance. Once the site is in operation, it is likely that deliveries will be made to the proposed service area. Waste will be disposed off via the existing waste compound area which is adjacent to the site and is currently used by the existing nursery. This existing waste unit includes bins where waste is segregated. For further information, please refer to the University s Recycling Guide. As previously mentioned, the University would like to create an outstanding nursery and in order to achieve this, consultation with Ofstead and parents have been undertaken during the design of the facility. Currently Ofstead considers that the external areas are an important resource which helps the development of children. For this

4 reason, the University has included generous playground areas around the building. Bespoke temporal play structures and equipment will be scattered around these areas once the building is completed. For security reasons, the entire nursery site will be enclosed and protected by a 1.8mm welded metal fence which will be painted in a dark green. All existing trees are to be retained. Keele University is aiming to achieve BREEAM very good rating for this project and design decisions have been made to a great extent with this in mind. Among others the following features have been included in the scheme: - Provision of a green roof in the East and West wings respectively. - Use of solar panels on the South Block roof - Intelligent design of services to maximise energy efficiency - Eco friendly Waste Management procedures - High insulation levels and air tightness - Inclusion of bicycle shelters to encourage exercise and well being Externally the building facades will be finished in self cleaning white render with pre-treated timber panels combined with decorative playful coloured panels. The internal courtyard elevations will use the same cladding materials. As already mentioned, the site is fully visible as one approaches it from the higher ground end on the North Side. For this reason an attractive and highly visible green roof has been included in the design of the East and West Wings whilst the South facing Block takes advantage of its orientation where solar panels have been proposed to aid the energy performance of the building.

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