STOCKPORT ACADEMY

AHR WERE APPOINTED BY UNITED LEARNING TRUST TO DESIGN THE NEW STOCKPORT ACADEMY, SITUATED ON THE GROUNDS PREVIOUSLY HELD BY AVONDALE HIGH SCHOOL. THE NEW BUILDING ACCOMODATES 1,150 STUDENTS, MORE THAN THE PREVIOUS SCHOOL'S 700 STUDENT CAPACITY, AND PROVIDES NEW FACILITIES WITH THE AIM OF BOOSTING STUDENT RESULTS.

Particular thought was given to design due to the Academy’s location under the flight path of Manchester Airport. Our solution was to create a flexible internal social space at the heart of the Academy thereby establishing a ‘tempered’ acoustically sound environment for performance, display, learning and informal interaction, with natural light provided by a glazed atrium. The atrium space is the focus for circulation and provides a point of reference when moving around the school.

The Academy is set into the landscape of the sloping site and creates a 3-storey covered entrance area overlooking play spaces and a pupil entrance at the lower level. Externally, the building is expressed as a single brick clad form with a prow like entrance and punched window openings and stair cores treated as individual elements extracted from the whole. Where possible, materials from the old school building were recycled and a range of environmentally friendly and cost effective passive and active technologies were used. These included a closed ground source heating and cooling system reducing carbon dioxide emissions, geothermal installation and natural ventilation for communal spaces via a system of façade openings and roof-mounted windcatchers.

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