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GALLERY

1

PRP to design new RNIB Vision School and Home

26.10.2008

Shepherd Construction has been awarded a £29m contract on behalf of The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) to develop the existing RNIB Rushton School and Children’s Home into a state-of-the-art ‘Vision’ School and Home.

The project, covering 32,900 m² in Ash Green, Coventry, has been two years in the planning, and is purpose-designed by PRP Architects Ltd to be completely accessible for young people with sight problems and learning difficulties. ‘Vision’ will offer a wide range of specialist services including music therapy, speech and language therapy and a hydrotherapy pool.

Commenting on the scheme Nigel Jones, Construction Manager for Shepherd said, “We are delighted to be involved with this exiting new scheme and look forward to delivering state-of-the-art facilities which will benefit pupils coming from all over the country.”

Lesley-Anne Alexander, Chief Executive of RNIB said: "This is one of the most exciting ventures carried out by RNIB. We are delighted that we are building on what we already have achieved at Rushton. Significant investment means we will not only be able to continue to offer the highest level of support to the existing young blind and partially sighted people with additional disabilities, but will be expanding to offer more places. We are looking forward to consulting and working with the local community, staff and parents to deliver this life-changing project."

The new campus provides a full time home for 60 young people and a school for up to 70 young people between the ages of 11 and 19. The school is designed to enable pupils to be class-based, but with a number of specialist areas including multi-sensory environments, a music therapy suite, and provision for physiotherapy. There will be a stand-alone music therapy centre, including a swimming pool and hydrotherapy pool, which will also be used by the pupils of neighbouring Exhall Grange School.

The children’s home will be arranged as a series of 10 individual single-storey houses, each with six bedrooms and direct access to private gardens. The cluster units allow each child to live within a family size group. All of the clusters are linked by a safe and protected internal street which runs from the entrance of the home to the children’s play park and the proposed ‘village green’.

Dr Adam Ockelford, RNIB Director of Rushton said: “These young people need a very high level of support. Their emotional, social and physical disabilities in addition to a sight problem means that they will find it difficult to function well in an ordinary domestic environment. Our pupils come to us from across the UK as, in many areas, local provision – particularly respite care – is under-resourced.”

Shepherd will be constructing the new school and care home whilst the existing facilities remain operational, which means that a carefully planned, phased development will be essential. PRP Project Services has been appointed project managers for the scheme. Shepherd will be working closely with RNIB in order to achieve the service needs required, and to create the “centre of excellence” that the new facilities will provide.

For over two years, PRP and Shepherd has been working with RNIB and the young people, the staff and practitioners to gain an understanding of how a young person with complex needs interacts with the built environment, and how the design can help to support, stimulate, and educate them.

Anne-Marie Nicholson, Group Director, PRP, concluded: “We believe that the level of care to be provided to these young people at this vision school to be the first of its kind – architecturally, we have been extremely descriptive about using planes of materials to form both wall and roof and using a mixed pallet of materials. The use of colour, texture, light, sound and varying acoustics will be used to help the children navigate and understand their environment. We have also proposed detailed landscaping for the 3.4 hectare site to provide different environments and habitats, such as trees with different types of bark, for the children to explore and learn in a safe and protected environment.”

RNIB are currently purchasing the land from Warwickshire County Council and building work will commence in spring 2008, with completion scheduled for 2011.