New Arts Building

In many respects the proposed Arts Building is less about the new proposed building and more about the existing buildings and the spaces around them. The main aim is to make sense of the existing buildings and to give them an improved setting while creating the needed additional accommodation and resolving access issues. 
 
The first step is to clear a number of post-war buildings to create an improved context.
 
The proposed building is seen as an extension of the existing 1900s Science Block and, like the Academic Centre, borrows from form and general texture that would be recognizably contemporary in detail.
 

A new wing parallel to the existing building will house four new Art Studios, two at ground and two in the roof space. This wing will be linked to the original building by an exhibition gallery with a partially glazed roof. The old building will be refurbished to accommodate three Art Studios. The main entrance to the building will be through a forecourt via the central exhibition gallery.

The space between the new building and the old gym is seen as an external gallery; a place to be colonized by all activities relating to Art and Design Technology. It is also the place where the two disciplines meet. A new set of landscape steps links this area to the upper level of the School.

 The materials to be used on the new Arts Building are clay tiles for the steep pitched roofs and traditional brick and cedar board cladding. Ridge roof lights articulate the roofs and introduce light into the building.
 
It is envisaged that the new Arts Building and associated upgrading of the Emms Block and old gym will be the second phase of the works.