The challenge: from cradle to grave, build a £27m campus in the Welsh town of Church Village that would benefit users from nursery age through primary and secondary schools to a lifelong learning centre, youth centre and public library. Do so without disturbing allotments and green-field land to the west, housing to the east, or old cedar trees in the middle. All this on a sharply graded hill. Could we turn the contours in our favour?

We could. Situating the primary school to the east, the slope minimises the single-storey height at its entrance: safe, enclosed, unimposing, welcoming – and no intrusion on the housing. The secondary school opposite is large, but broken into five blocks which fan out and drop down the hill, greatly reducing the sense of mass as the buildings tuck in behind each other: these in turn do not impose on the primary school. Playing fields occupy the green-field land. Sustainable features and landscape integrate the scheme, with the cedars the feature of the central courtyard.

From innovative classroom spaces to the masterplan, this is another example of how our multidisciplinary approach can inspire a successfully integrated whole.

Garth is the mountain which overlooks the site. Olwg means ‘view’. Garth Olwg Community Campus is a £27million education facility in Church Village, Rhondda Cynon Taff, incorporating a nursery, primary and secondary schools, lifelong learning centre, youth centre and public library for the town. The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) Project replaces many run down and obsolete school buildings in the area. The project came about as part of the Welsh Assembly’s commitment to “ensuring that all school buildings are fit for purpose by 2010”. The project was won in 2001 by Jarvis Projects, who took on the design and management of the Welsh-speaking community campus.

Austin-Smith:Lord worked with Jarvis to secure the tender and were subsequently hired as lead architects. The project began on site in February 2003. After only six months Jarvis were forced to terminate the contract due to well-documented company-wide difficulties. In 2005, NorWest Holst agreed to continue the work, taking on the build and the 25-year management contract. The project was completed and handed over in time for the 2006-2007 academic year.

The campus is located in the 19th century mining town of Church Village, South Wales. Over-looked by Garth mountain and steeply sloped towards the Severn estuary, the complex site was subject to many planning restrictions and can be best described in three segments. The entire west portion of the site is green-field and therefore could not be built on and allotments to the north-west had to be maintained due to local opposition, thus leaving a plateau situated at the south-west edge of the site. This area is steeply graded towards the stream at the valley bottom and is encompassed by the main road to the west, the access road and stream to the south and residential two-storey housing along the eastern perimeter. The overall form was borne from these constraints.

A major consideration for Austin-Smith:Lord was how to tackle the issue of placing such a large number of different buildings, with very different end-users, onto one site. In order to create a secure and welcoming environment for the nursery and primary schools, we chose to use the site contours to reduce the apparent massing of buildings, making them less imposing.

The primary school is situated towards the east, close to the residential area. This low-lying, one-storey building ensures that the residents are not overlooked, while providing an approachable and unintimidating first school for the young pupils. The soft curve of the building creates a partially enclosed play area in front of the school. Although strong links are made across the entire site by paths and site lines, the courtyard creates an emotive sense of place and ownership.

The secondary school is undoubtedly a large building, but strategic planning sees the massing fragmented into five smaller, similarly sized buildings. These are located west of the primary school and are rotated and staggered down the hillside on a number of plateaux. The site contours mean that a three storey façade faces the busy road, protecting the site from noise and the westerly prevailing winds, whilst an unimposing two-storey block fronts the courtyard edge. Although this string of buildings stretch north-south on the site, the rotation, full storey height difference and reduced depth of each block allow the school to maximise south light and thermal gains, while taking advantage of natural ventilation.

The internal organisation has been carefully considered, integrating sustainable design with the desire to create a secure and stimulating environment at all stages of education.

The primary school has a sympathetic layout that pulls away from the traditional “stem and leaf” plan. Circulation takes place along the inner circumference of the curve, providing the classrooms with a degree of separation from the outdoor play areas. The teaching rooms are relatively undefined: glazing is used at the rear of the rooms to allow much natural light into the space and provide views over the gardens while the corridors are only separated by storage units and can be used as an overspill space. Classrooms are grouped in twos, with each pair sharing an entrance and toilet facilities. Each pair has been assigned a colour that is used at the entrance and as part of the interior design scheme. By reducing the scale of the children’s surroundings and providing an identifiable environment, it is hoped that the pupils are more relaxed while at school, aiding learning and enjoyment.

The secondary school and lifelong learning centre take on a more traditional layout. Each building contains the many classrooms, teaching spaces, laboratories and IT rooms required for a school of this size. Entry is permitted at each of the ‘knuckles’ created between the buildings. These interesting and irregularly shaped spaces house the vertical circulation, toilet provisions and informal meeting places, and cleverly conceal the plant. This allows the five rectangular blocks to cater solely for educational facilities.

The depth of each building has been designed so that natural ventilation can be taken advantage of, yet useable space has been maximised by simply angling the corridors. This effective orientation provides a more direct route of travel between places, reduces unnecessary circulation, and creates different sized teaching rooms – increasing space and giving the client a scheme tailored to their needs rather than a dull block of uniform cells.

Sustainable features were incorporated into the design from an early stage. The orientation of the buildings means that they can take advantage of much natural daylight, thermal gains and natural ventilation, thereby reducing the need for excessive plant. Local materials have been used, taken only from renewable sources, such as the Welsh Heartwood Oak. Furthermore, the retaining walls use stone salvaged from the former houses that were on the site.

Landscape also plays a key role on the environmental impact of the scheme: buildings cover only a small proportion of the site, allotments have been provided for local residents and the green-field area has been left undeveloped. The established trees which frame the central courtyard are now legally protected from felling to ensure their future existence. Throughout the main (formally brown-field) site meticulous design has created a sculpted landscape that provides many opportunities for the development and study of wildlife. A new stream and pond not only direct excess ground water to the valley bottom, but also, along with pergola-lined paths and woodland area, ensure that rich and varied habitats outweigh the built environment.

More visible methods of conserving energy have been used throughout the scheme and although they make little difference to the overall running costs of the campus and the power it will inevitably consume, they act as effective demonstrations and teaching aids for the pupils. These include rainwater being collected from the large roof area and stored underground for use in flushing the secondary school toilets, and photovoltaic and solar panels to produce some electricity and hot water for use in the school.

Traffic was of concern to the local residents. At outline planning stage only 145 vehicles were allowed to enter the site – 75 from the top and 70 from the main A473 road, and we retained this split. Most secondary school pupils arrive by school bus, and so a bus parking area for 16 coaches has been incorporated.

Austin-Smith:Lord has designed a state-of-the-art campus which caters for the educational and social needs of a large and varied group of end-users. The understated design has been thoughtfully and sympathetically considered, creating interesting and stimulating places throughout the entire scheme. Although Garth Olwg is a large campus with many facilities, individual and intimate moments have been carved with elegant simplicity and attention to detail. Austin-Smith:Lord has pulled away from the ever-popular ‘architecture for architecture’s sake’ mindset and has successfully focused on the creation of a sense of place, and its multidisciplinary nature has been elemental in achieving that.