Our Lady & St John is an 11–16 Voluntary Aided Co-Educational Comprehensive School situated in the Shadsworth Ward of Blackburn with Darwen. The proposal for a new Vocational centre stems from a presumption granted by the DfES in December 2006, following the schools recognition as a high performing specialist school with Vocational Education status as a second specialism. The DfES presumption states that high performing vocational specialist 11–16 schools should offer post-16 opportunities as alternative provision. The proposal is for a new build 300 place 16 -19 Vocational Centre on land adjoining the existing school site at Our Lady & St Johns RC Arts College. This new development will provide modern teaching accommodation to lift the aspirations of the staff, pupils and visitors and is funded through the Learning Skills Council. Several different vocational courses will be taught at the new centre including Catering, Engineering, Hair & Beauty, Media Studies, and IT & Business Studies. These courses will have a flexible curriculum within the new building with links to existing industry within Blackburn and the surrounding area. The design of the building very much evolved from the context of the proposed site. Following receipt of the site survey the contours were drawn on the reveal the topography of the site. Due to the substantial fall across the site it was decided to minimise the cut & fill and thereby reduce the amount of earth being removed from the site from a sustainability point of view. The contours revealed a sweeping flow across the site from end to end. This reinforced the initial massing for a curved building following the flow of the contours.