Hazelwood School for the Blind

Prue Chiles

Description

Hazelwood School for the Blind addressed the issue of personal development of
each student by designing a building that is conceived to support students’
transition to adulthood and independence. The central spine corridor provides an
indication of this, with tactile surfaces that guide pupils through the space,
helping young people to explore their surroundings, whether inside the school or
outside in the wider community. The whole school is designed as a sensory
landscape for visually impaired students. The majority of students can perceive
changes in light level and therefore it is doubly important that the diurnal
rhythms of day and night, dark and light can be understood by students within
the classroom.

Adjacent to the main school building, a discreet distance away, is the ‘life
skills house’. Designed as self-contained apartments, older pupils can stay
overnight and for longer periods where appropriate, to test out their domestic
skills and prepare themselves for moving away from home. The house offers three
bedrooms with adjacent [but not en suite] bathrooms, shared kitchen and living
space. The house has its own outdoor space and is very much a stand-alone unit,
offering the bare essentials in a simple plan arrangement that is easy for
students to navigate and settle in to. The house is almost a clone of the main
building: its elegant simplicity, textural qualities and strong links to the
school grounds distilled down into a smaller building.

The life skills house acts as a kind of destination point for pupils progressing
from junior classes near the entrance of the school, along the sinuous
circulation route to the class spaces of the senior and leavers school. A visual
connection is maintained between the senior classrooms and the house, providing
reassurance for staff that unsupervised students are getting on with their own
lives. A slate-clad wall acts as a comforting arm projecting from the main
school building around the annexed unit, sheltering the school from the busy
road beyond. Every aspect of the house has been considered to bridge the gap
between school and life beyond. The next step for pupils is out into the real
world, but perhaps the only downside with Hazelwood School is that the buildings
and landscape are so carefully designed, the pupils may never want to leave!