The brief was to provide additional teaching and residential accommodation resulting from the Council's decision to lower the age of transfer for pupils into secondary schools from 12 to 11 years old. The new teaching accommodation comprises four general purpose classrooms and five specialist spaces. Wendover House School is a school for children with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (EBD) situated in the Buckinghamshire Chilterns classified in the Local Plan as being of Great Landscape Value and within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The nature of the site called for great care to be taken to provide a scheme which not only met the requirements of the brief determined by the County Council and the then DfES, but which responded to the particularly sensitive nature of the site. Some of the older buildings forming the school, including the former walled kitchen garden, are listed as being of Special Historic Interest. These constraints resulted in detailed discussions with the County Council as Planning Authority and the Historic Buildings Advisers to the Council regarding the siting and designs of the new buildings. After considering various options for what was a significant extension to the teaching accommodation, it was finally decided that here was an ideal opportunity to give a new lease of life to the kitchen gardens. At first, there was resistance to the idea that the old walled enclosure, with its formal arrangements of box hedging and vegetable patches, should be built on. But it was clear to the architects that this location offered many advantages over other sites considered all of which would have used up attractive open space, be highly visible from neighbouring properties or blocked important views of the old Manor House. Discussions were held with the Local Planning Authority who decreed that the height of the new building must be kept as low as possible behind the high, listed brick walls so that the new building would be virtually invisible from the church adjoining. Another stipulation was the requirement for replacement high quality landscaping including retention and replacement of as much of the box hedging as possible. The accommodation consists of specialist teaching areas (Science, Textiles, Food Technology and Art) on one side of a central corridor with four general classrooms on the other. A timber deck allows classes to spill out when weather permits. The decision was taken to make the new Teaching Block a modern statement of architectural form reflecting the style of the era echoing decisions taken in the past when other buildings were added to the campus. Consequently the building is constructed using a steel frame, glass, local brickwork with cedar cladding with a flat roof to keep the height as low as possible. Environmental considerations were fundamental in the designs development and include solar shading, under floor heating, cross flow natural ventilation system.