Natural and cultural themes have formed the inspiration for an impressive new school in rural Aberdeenshire.
Midmill Primary School in Kintore features a playful façade which combines ROCKPANEL Woods with colourful ROCKPANEL Rockclad boards, routed to depict local fauna and Pictish culture.
Rapid population growth in Kintore, which only had one primary school, meant a new one was needed. Built by Morrison Construction, the new primary school will help to ease this pressure, adding capacity for around 540 students. The school has been designed with a U-shaped footprint set around a central courtyard and includes high quality teaching and sports facilities.
“A key element of the design is an enclosing wall to form the courtyard. The building is constructed out of timber so we were keen to express this externally”, Craig Matheson, architect with Aberdeenshire Council’s design team, explained. “ROCKPANEL Woods provided the opportunity to have a visually prominent material with strong horizontal emphasis. The subtle colour variation of the product allowed us to use this to give the impression of movement as it wraps around the building.”
ROCKPANEL Woods are virtually indistinguishable from real woods and are available in a variety of designs, including rich Mahogany, light Beech and muted Carbon Oak. Aberdeenshire Council specified the boards in subtly contrasting patterns, creating a lively, contemporary aesthetic.
ROCKPANEL Rockclad boards were also chosen for areas of the façade in vibrant shades of orange, yellow and green.
“We specified the ROCKPANEL Rockclad at the pupil entrance areas in a series of bold colours, each year group having an associated colour, to help them to make a simple visual connection with their respective entrance,” Craig Matheson added.
To help engage and inspire the students, the project team were keen to incorporate art within the building’s design. Following a competitive tender process, surface designers, Bespoke Atelier were selected to create the art.
“We researched the different materials which had been specified by the architect for the different areas of the school and picked a few which we thought would be interesting to work with,” designer, Marion Parola, explained. “The ROCKPANEL boards were easy to engrave and the company routing the boards helped guide us through the process. For us, ROCKPANEL boards are a great material to work with, a blank canvas ready to be drawn on... with a great colour palette!”
ROCKPANEL boards are produced from highly sustainable, naturally occurring basalt. This allows them to be engraved, without reducing their weather resistance. Over time, the routed designs will weather to a deep brown, providing a perfect contrast with the intense façade colours.
“After community consultation with the local primary school we decided to base our artwork around the themes of land and fields, fauna and flora and Pictish culture,” Marion continued. “Our designs on each external facade of the building help integrate the school within its natural environment. Through the routing method, we created engraved patterns for each classroom entrance using playful and bold nature based designs. Whilst being derived from illustrations, the engraved patterns have a tactile feel which comes from our textile background.
“We are really pleased with the job and are glad it's turned out so well. No two projects are the same for us, every design we create is unique; however, the experience in materials is something which is definitely transferable into future jobs and we hope to do much more work with ROCKPANEL in the future.”
Midmill Primary School has been designed to achieve a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ rating. ROCKPANEL Durable and Durable ProtectPlus boards hold a highest possible BRE Green Guide rating of A+. The products were, therefore, able to contribute towards the award of credits within the BREEAM assessment.