Fettes College School

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.