General Introduction to Project
This extension to Stoneyhill Primary School provides a welcoming new entrance, staff and administrative offices, a nursery, four classrooms for senior pupils, a games hall and changing rooms, toilets and cloakrooms for a fairly recently completed school in East Lothian. The former entrance and administration area in the existing building was also remodelled to enlarge the dining room and provide a new open plan area.
As East Lothian is one of the few areas in Scotland where the population is increasing at a significant rate, this project is representative of a number of schools in the same area which are also being extensively remodelled (please see Gullane Primary, also featured as a case study).
The project was designed by East Lothian Council architects, who take their environmental and sustainability responsibilities particularly seriously, as is evident in the choice of materials, and attention to detail. The project remained within budget and was delivered on time against a tight timescale.
The project was chosen as a case study because it demonstrates how the need to extend substantially a relatively new school can be turned to the advantage of the pupils - in this case it created a wing that catered better for the needs of senior primary school pupils within a school that was previously open plan, providing them with a quieter, classroom based arrangement at the other end of the school. In addition the project focuses on sustainability through the selection of materials and the creation of a particularly healthy environment. In this case, the council's design philosophy dispels the myth that 'green design' is necessarily more expensive, takes longer or results in design compromise.