Architect

Capita Percy Thomas

Pupils on roll

900 (when full)

Area

Kitchen/servery: 140m ²
Dining: 190m ²

Design

The key gathering space of the academy is the main circulation street, with its four-storey solar atrium. It has galleries at all the upper levels overlooking the wide ground floor circulation route, which leads from the main entrance and cyber-café to the dining facilities at the eastern end, linking these two key social spaces.The designers collaborated with an acoustician to ensure that the noise breakout from the dining area met the requirements of BB93. They produced a lively environment along the solar atrium, including the dining area as part of the overall circulation space, rather than a closed-off room.

The Cyber Cafe

The dining space walls are a combination of white painted plasterboard and polished in-situ concrete walls.The ceiling is also in-situ concrete, with ventilation extracts left on show. The flooring is white terrazzo.The dining room furniture consists of beech tables and chairs, to create a high quality environment for meeting and social interaction.The space has good daylight from the large windows overlooking the playground and the long rectangular roof light, painted bright orange on their reveals to bring strong colour into the space.

The Dining Hall

The kitchen is next to the dining space. It has good daylight and easy access for deliveries and recycling facilities. The floor is non-slip vinyl. Servery units have laminate fronts with Corian worktops.

School Food Policy

The school is aiming to achieve the ‘LOAF’ principle developed by the Christian Ecology Link, which sets out the catering ambition: Locally purchased, Organically grown, Animal friendly, Fairly traded. The cybercafé (serving teas, coffee and hot chocolate) provides a welcome internet service and is popular in the mornings. Pupils tend to come in to use the internet and get breakfast.The school is looking at establishing vegetable plots on the roof.

Feedback

Pupils

• There is good variety of food offered, both hot and cold.
• An outdoor dining area for the summer time would be welcome.
• The furniture, lighting and colours of the dining space are popular.
  The servery gets crowded and would be better bigger.

Guidance/Conclusions

What this case study does well:

• The kitchen is a very pleasant working environment, with good daylight and layout
• The servery has stylish detailing, with particularly attractive counters
• The dining area has good daylight, and is stylish with a high quality feel
• The furniture in the dining area is well-designed and built of high-quality timber, giving a sophisticated feel to the dining area. It is proving to be durable in use.