Ranelagh Multi-denominational School

Mark Dudek

Description

Many school authorities look to create large schools located on out-of-town sites. As a result the facility is often distanced from the local community, children need to travel, there is a loss of intimacy. Here the thinking was to create a small building located on the same site as the previous run-down school right in the midst of the residential neighbourhood. It was to be fully integrated into the working class neighbourhood from which the majority of its pupils are drawn.

Due to the limitations of the site, a two-storey building was required providing four classrooms on each level. Internally the simple plan with its eight north-facing classrooms is given a distinctive quality with the circulation spine overlooking the playground to the south. It has staircases at each end with a lift in the centre. The circulation zone is intended to be more than a functional movement space and is generously proportioned with seating, display areas, coat hooks and drinking fountains. It is a street for children, a social mixing area for the youngest to the oldest children as they move from classroom to playground.

The building occupies the upper north side hard up against the street. The south side is open with a small play yard which is surrounded by a landscaped fence to provide protection from the sun and privacy from the terraced houses across the street. The wrought-iron perimeter fence is a remnant of the previous school, whose gate still forms the entrance at the rear. Whilst the north-facing elevation, hard up against the street, is relatively closed with one window per class puncturing the brick façade, the south side is much more open and transparent with a full-width glazed and shuttered window running along the entire width of the building at first floor. In contrast to the solid masonry construction of the classroom block, this circulation area is made with lightweight timber to provide the maximum area of glazing. The contrast between solid and lightweight architecture is practical and gives an interesting spatial twist to the building.

Classroom specification was tightly prescribed by the Department of Education. However, colour was used as a form of coding throughout the building. The floors are coloured lino, in classrooms yellow, black in wet areas, terracotta in corridors and blue in teachers‘ rooms. The unplastered blockwork walls are also coloured. The inside faces of the external classroom walls are white. The walls to corridors, bathrooms and adjoining classrooms are painted in strong earth colours, red, blue and green. Taken from Italian frescoes according to the architects, they are vibrant and strong, yet complementary to each other and to the naturally coloured untreated materiality used elsewhere. In 2005 this school received the prestigious RIAI Architecture Award.