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Revolutionary design for classrooms at new academy for the deaf
TEACHERS have promised that a "breathtaking" new city school featuring revolutionary classrooms will be one of Exeter's most significant modern buildings.
The people co-ordinating the new development, for the Royal Academy for Deaf Education have revealed detailed plans for the first time as they prepare to show off an unusual new classroom to the community.
Teachers at the school and college say the "pod" has been built to test out ideas they want to use in the design for their new academy, due to open in September, 2011.
Both structures were designed by award-winning educational architect de Rijke Marsh Morgan.
Distinctive features of the academy will include experimental learning spaces because deaf children are generally visual learners, community facilities to bring together deaf and hearing people, a swimming pool, offices for health staff, and a "carbon positive" design.
Architects will use natural materials, among them material used in the domes at Cornwall's Eden Project, and have designed the building so it can be changed to adapt to the needs of pupils.
Chief executive Jonathan Farnhill said he believed the new school would be one of the most significant buildings completed in Exeter this decade.
"The pod has been designed following extensive consultation with students, staff and parents," he said.
"It responds to the desire of students to learn in irregular-shaped classrooms and also answers the challenge to be both flexible in use and also in size.
"It is based on a partition system that feels permanent, but can be changed in size in a few hours. To prove the point, £40,000 of the £55,000 cost has been spent on materials that will be relocated to the new academy.
"It has been funded by a Department for Children, Schools and Families grant. The lighting, aromatherapy fan and projection system, all of which the student can control, can replicate totally different environments.
"The residential students can also use it in the evening to relax in, using a Nintendo Wii. Our multi-sensory impaired students can use it as a calming space due to the bubble wall, memory foam panels and vibrating bean bag chair.
"The use of ICT to create a multi-function room such as the pod is very significant. The traditional understanding of learning spaces as having dedicated and single use no longer applies and this can totally transform the way educational buildings are used."
There has been a school for the deaf on the site, in Topsham Road, for more than 180 years. It is not yet clear if school bosses will have to sell land there to pay for the new buildings.
"The new vision sees us become a lifelong learning academy for deaf people, through providing formal and informal education, and harnessing our enviable location to run holiday programmes for deaf children in mainstream schools, and through new technologies which can tackle social isolation for deaf children," Mr Farnhill said.
TEACHERS have promised that a "breathtaking" new city school featuring revolutionary classrooms will be one of Exeter's most significant modern buildings.
The people co-ordinating the new development, for the Royal Academy for Deaf Education have revealed detailed plans for the first time as they prepare to show off an unusual new classroom to the community.
Teachers at the school and college say the "pod" has been built to test out ideas they want to use in the design for their new academy, due to open in September, 2011.
Both structures were designed by award-winning educational architect de Rijke Marsh Morgan.
Distinctive features of the academy will include experimental learning spaces because deaf children are generally visual learners, community facilities to bring together deaf and hearing people, a swimming pool, offices for health staff, and a "carbon positive" design.
Architects will use natural materials, among them material used in the domes at Cornwall's Eden Project, and have designed the building so it can be changed to adapt to the needs of pupils.
Chief executive Jonathan Farnhill said he believed the new school would be one of the most significant buildings completed in Exeter this decade.
"The pod has been designed following extensive consultation with students, staff and parents," he said.
"It responds to the desire of students to learn in irregular-shaped classrooms and also answers the challenge to be both flexible in use and also in size.
"It is based on a partition system that feels permanent, but can be changed in size in a few hours. To prove the point, £40,000 of the £55,000 cost has been spent on materials that will be relocated to the new academy.
"It has been funded by a Department for Children, Schools and Families grant. The lighting, aromatherapy fan and projection system, all of which the student can control, can replicate totally different environments.
"The residential students can also use it in the evening to relax in, using a Nintendo Wii. Our multi-sensory impaired students can use it as a calming space due to the bubble wall, memory foam panels and vibrating bean bag chair.
"The use of ICT to create a multi-function room such as the pod is very significant. The traditional understanding of learning spaces as having dedicated and single use no longer applies and this can totally transform the way educational buildings are used."
There has been a school for the deaf on the site, in Topsham Road, for more than 180 years. It is not yet clear if school bosses will have to sell land there to pay for the new buildings.
"The new vision sees us become a lifelong learning academy for deaf people, through providing formal and informal education, and harnessing our enviable location to run holiday programmes for deaf children in mainstream schools, and through new technologies which can tackle social isolation for deaf children," Mr Farnhill said.