Non Profit Distributing Organisation – NPDO, Scottish Renewal Project, Lochgilphead Joint Campus

Argyll and Bute Schools : Building

Ten New Schools design by jm architects, Scotland, UK

15 Oct 2005

Design: jm architects

Argyll and Bute Schools

Argyll And Bute Schools Project Reaches Financial Close

The bid consortium lead by ABC for the Argyll and Bute Schools Non Profit Distributing Organisation (NPDO) project has now reached financial close.

picture : Lochgilphead Joint Campus

Argyll and Bute School Buildings

This renewal project consists of the construction of ten new schools on five sites to replace the existing nine sites. Designed by jmarchitects, all the new schools are scheduled for completion by December 2007. Work is already underway on the first four sites which are:

– Dunoon Grammar School: a 1,000 pupil secondary school on the site of the existing grammar school.

– Rothesay Joint Campus: a joint secondary and primary school on the site of the exiting primary school.

– Lochgilphead Joint Campus: a joint secondary, primary and SEN school on a greenfield site at the entrance to Lochgilphead.

– Oban Joint Primary Schools: a new campus which brings together St Columbus Catholic Primary, Rockfield (non denominational) Primary and Drummore SEN school on an existing site.

Making up the project’s tenth school will be Hermitage Academy, which is a new 1,700 pupil secondary school. Construction work is expected to start early in the New Year on a greenfield site at the gateway to Helensburgh.

Argyll and Bute Council’s NPDO model is the first of its kind in Scotland. It is a variant of PFI/PPP, which captures the benefits of traditional project, but has the potential to offer greater value for money to the Council. The NPDO is structured so that any surplus is made available to a Charity nominated by the Council instead of being paid out to shareholders.

Responding to the key brief requirements, project design features include flexibility build-in through the strategy of separating partition walls. Primarily these will be non load bearing to allow future adaptation to be easily made, together with integrated sliding folding partitions, and an inclusive and barrier free approach to design, internally and externally.

The provision of a large multi-use space at the heart of the schools and joint campuses is a major design element of the secondary & campus projects. Modelled to allow natural light deep into the plan, these spaces will be used for assembly, drama, dining, and impromptu meetings and activities. It is anticipated they will also create a significant ‘public’ school space to engender pride amongst the building users.

Comments Lynn Algar, director, jmarchitects: “Working closely with Argyll and Bute Council, allowed us to understand its objective of raising standards of educational achievement through a flexible, socially-inclusive and integrated service provision. We are confident our design philosophy, which focuses on the creation of well-planned, environmentally-sustainable and site-responsive solutions, meets this aim.”

jm architects – Argyll & Bute Schools information, 26 Oct 2005

jm architects

Glasgow Schools

jmarchitects is a leading practice of architects, master planners and designers employing 150 people from five office locations in the UK. The practice is currently involved in a number of educational projects across the UK including the new Donaldsons College School for the Deaf, which will be built on brownfield land on the southern edge of the historic town of Linlithgow, West Lothian. Scotland.

It will provide state-of-the-art educational facilities for the teaching of deaf and speech and language impaired pupils, including Scotland’s only Deaf Studies department. Construction is due to commence on site in early 2006 with completion summer 2007.

Argyll and Bute Council covers the second largest geographical area of any Scottish local authority, stretching for over 100 miles from Appin in the north to Campbeltown in the south and more than 80 miles across from the island of Tiree in the west to Helensburgh in the east. It has six towns, 26 inhabited islands and over 3,000 miles of coastline – more than the entire coastline of France.

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