Kingswood School, Bath, commissioned Stonewood Design to lead the design and construction of new accommodation for the Preparatory School. The School proposed two new buildings on a site to the north of the existing Preparatory School: Firstly a New Prep School Building re-accommodates facilities in a fit-for-purpose new building. This includes classrooms for Years 5 and 6, Music, Art, “STEAM” facilities and a new School Hall. Secondly the School also wished to address the demand for Pre-Prep and Nursery by constructing a new building, specifically for this use, alongside new reception classes which will smooth the process to starting Preparatory School. Stonewood Design worked closely with the school to develop a innovative brief that built upon the schools current ethos whilst challenging the client to create a building that would allow for more exciting and progressive learning. Key Design Concepts include: • Classrooms and nursery spaces to have direct access to the outside. • Inside-Outside Spaces. • Kinaesthetic Learning. • Forest School. • A scale appropriate to children. • A facility capable of bringing everyone together “As a Family”, students, teachers and parents • Ecology. A Magical Woodland Setting. • A scheme which embraces topography, views • and landscape. • Awareness of the changing day and seasons. • Creative solutions to storage. • Quality of materials. • A creative curriculum. The site is bound by mature trees which enclose a rolling topography of grassed areas, stepped woodland dells and play areas. Views outward to the south and west across the valley are a feature. The site therefore required a particular response, appropriate to its setting. The appearance of the New Prep School Building and Nursery was important in terms of how the school relates to the World Heritage City, and in terms of how the buildings are enjoyed and loved by the children who use them. The built volumes take the form of a collection of pitched and hipped roofs. This “normalises” the buildings to something which is familiar and not institutional. The buildings are constructed from large cross laminated timber panels. This is a quick, clean, quiet and panellised form of construction, appropriate to a learning environment. This provides an opportunity to use a material with a low embodied energy. Exposing the timber internally creates a sense of calm, which, when combined with the excellent quality of daylight and sunlight, helps lower stress levels and lift the spirits for the children and the teachers. The external materials comprise of Western Red Cedar shingles to roofs and walls, (a woodland response, with a scale that children can relate to), and a tactile brick which has the tones of Bath stone, (a “crafted” material which relates to materials found in the wider school site).