Watford Crescent Primary School

This new-build 1FE primary school on a brownfield site in West Watford has places for 210 children. It also incorporates a community centre with three classrooms that can be integrated with the school hall and kitchen for weekend and evening events.

The hall is used to create a focus towards the building with a brightly coloured ribbon of patterning standing off the facade. This also provides a services zone for heating and ventilating the hall.

The site is between one of the main A roads into Watford and a residential area. Minimising the noise impact to the school from the road was an important factor in determining the layout of the building on the site and also the performance of the envelope. To reduce the effect of playground noise to the surrounding residential properties we provide a series of acoustic banks and walls.

The scheme balances natural lighting and ventilation, with a highly insulated envelope to minimise the energy footprint. This is complemented by a ground source heat pump beneath the playground.

The proposal was granted planning permission in November 2004.