Major Design Award for Ardingly College Pre-Prep
Newly renovated farm buildings that now serve as state-of-the-art classrooms for under seven-year-olds at Ardingly College have won a prestigious design award.
The restoration of an old barn and Cow Shed at the Ardingly Pre-Prep was hailed by judges at the West Sussex County Council Design and Sustainability Awards 2009 as “uplifting.” It was also described as a “sensitive and high quality extension to an existing architectural building.”
Ardingly College Pre-Prep headmistress Jeanne Adkins said: “It is wonderful that our buildings' design has been recognised by this major award. The restoration has transformed our surroundings and created a spacious, self-contained pre-prep school offering pupils a modern, safe environment which I think is second to none.”
The eminent Victorian “gothic-revival” architect, William Butterfield, had designed the original Ardingly College Farm. The award-winning architectural work involved restoring the buildings opposite the main farmhouse and the pigsty, which serve today as the Nursery for children from age 2 ½. The restoration retained and recovered important original architectural features, including the space created by the original barn, which has now been transformed into a light and welcoming meeting and assembly hall.
The school's designer, Andrew Fuller, a chartered surveyor in Arundel who specializes in restoring old and ancient buildings, said: “It was a wonderful project and involved a huge amount of painstaking research. We wanted to source and use the most appropriate materials, such as matching Imperial size red bricks and hand-made clay tiles, to ensure the restoration reflected the building's history while at the same time serving the needs of a pre-prep school for the 21st century and beyond.”
The new building opposite the Nursery now houses six classrooms for children in Reception to Year 2; toilets, changing rooms, a staff room, assembly hall and foyer.
Mr Fuller added: “The addition of a green-oak, timber-framed corridor extension provides increased access and interesting roof lines. Under-floor heating and high levels of insulation help make this a very efficient building, and create a comfortable working environment, too.”
Award judges said of the new Pre-Prep School design that it was
“sustainable;” that “one immediately notices how well it reflects the feeling of the existing buildings” and “the level of care and attention to historic detail is clearly evident.”
For more details please contact either Ardingly College's pre-prep headmistress Jeanne Adkins on 01444 893300 or chartered surveyor Andrew Fuller on 01903 885444 (Andrew Fuller Associates, Norton Studio, School Lane, Arundel, West Sussex,
BN18 9DR)
Other buildings designed by William Butterfield, the architect of the farm at Ardingly, include the Chapel at Balliol College, Oxford (in 1856-7); Keble College, Oxford (1876); Merton College, Oxford New Buildings (1864); Rugby School Chapel and Quadrangle (1875)
Ardingly Pre-Prep School
