£30m milestone as Lungfish Architects supports 1,400 new school places across Derby

Environmentally driven architectural practice, Lungfish Architects has successfully partnered with Morgan Sindall Construction to deliver more than £30m-worth of educational infrastructure in Derby, helping to generate 1,440 additional school places.

Lungfish has designed and delivered some of Derby City Council and Derby County Council’s most recent transformative school projects including Hackwood Primary Academy, Castleward Primary School, Highfields Spencer Academy, Ravensdale Infant & Nursery and, most recently, Snelsmoor Grange Primary School which is due to open in September 2023.

Procured through SCAPE’s frameworks over the past three years, the completed projects have all been delivered on time, on budget and with an average client satisfaction of score of 9.5/10.

The milestone reaffirms Lungfish’s commitment to creating sustainable and purposeful learning environments that support sustainable community regeneration.

Working closely with each council, Lungfish undertook an extensive research and development study outlining exemplar school design and developing a standardised kit of parts. This standardised approach could be applied to any school site, whilst delivering the council’s educational requirements.

Utilising simplicity and design-led methods, Lungfish Architects has also sought to maximise space. The layout and shape of each school building was carefully designed to suit the day-to-day management, needs, and user flow through the schools to deliver greater efficiency. Each classroom maximises natural day light and encapsulates external views, while unique educational facilities and environments encourages positive and engaging learning environments.

For Castleward Primary School, a constrained inner-city site, the addition of a rooftop play area helped the school achieve more outdoor space than the site would have traditionally allowed, while at Ravensdale Infant & Nursery, every classroom had their own outdoor access for play and lessons outside. New trees and a wild meadow were also installed to create biodiverse learning areas.

Simon Reid, managing director at Lungfish Architects, said: “The five school projects mark another important milestone for Lungfish and our commitment to pushing the boundaries of educational design. Creating buildings that improve the lives of communities continues to inspire us and we approach every project with the same mantra.

“Utilising offsite construction methods has resulted in a reduction of time spent on site, allowing the delivery timescales for each project to be shortened and school places to be opened up sooner. Modular design and construction also drives down the amount of embodied carbon within each school.

“Working closely with the delivery team at Morgan Sindall has allowed our design concepts and visions for these schools to become a reality. They are true assets to the local area and will play a vital role in educating generations to come.”

Rob Cant, SCAPE Framework Director at Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “We first partnered with Lungfish Architects on Hackwood Primary Academy. Not only was this project the largest to be delivered through the SCAPE Venture framework at the time, but it was also the first modular build project we had delivered in the Midlands. Working closely with the Lungfish team we have since gone on to develop an industry leading approach to modular construction that uses the very latest advances and technologies in modern methods of construction. Coupled with our proven ability to deliver traditional builds, we feel we are now perfectly placed to quickly respond to our clients’ needs with a number of solutions.”

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