Fettes College School
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North elevation
Renzo Mazzolini (website) Download Original
Single-storey, timber framed preparatory school for 157 children in the grounds of Fettes College, an independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh
The building is angled towards a new pedestrian entrance on East Fettes Avenue, sits low to the ground and has a subtle, domestic feel of a setting and scale appropriate for children. The plan is oriented along an east-west axis to make best use of sunlight from the south to the main circulation space.
Viewed in plan, five classrooms, a library, a double-sized art room and new changing rooms step back in a controlled, saw-tooth pattern from the art display corridor, which constitutes the main circulation space and which is day-lit from above. This controlled effect creates small vestibule entrances to each classroom.
A monopitched roof, clad in zinc, covers the structure in a single plane. ‘Wind-catchers’ provide ventilation to the classrooms. The roof also covers external deck spaces adjacent to each classroom, which face on to the all-weather playing field. It’s a nice touch. The roof opens up to the south to bring sunlight into the circulation space, giving a certain presence and sense of scale to the ‘public’ part of the building, while it dips at the north, lending a more intimate scale to the classrooms.
Data
- Begun: Oct 2007
- Completed: Oct 2008
- Floor area: 1,135m2
- Sector: Education
- Total cost: £1.8M
- Tender date: Jun 2007
- Procurement: Traditional SBCC
- Address: 2 Carrington Road, Edinburgh, EH4 1QX, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Page \ Park Architects
- Project architect: Karen Nugent
- Client: Fettes College, Edinburgh
- Structural engineer: Will Rudd Davidson
- Quantity surveyor: Thomas and Adamson
- Main contractor: Fleming Building
- M&E engineer: Harley Haddow
Suppliers
- Timber Cladding and Joinery: Kiwi joinery
- Internal Glazing: Deko Scotland
- Windcatchers : JRF Chimneys
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