White Design is to take on the role of Sustainability and Design Consultant for the BAM Consortium’s Local Education Partnership (LEP) within Somerset County Council’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

BAM Consortium has been selected by Somerset County Council to undertake its £600 million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme and to be the Council’s private sector partner for the Local Education Partnership.

Announcing the decision this week, Julia Ridge, Somerset BSF Programme Director, said: "We are delighted to have a partner of such calibre to help take forward the Somerset BSF programme."

The selection process involved extensive evaluation by a team of over 50 people, ranging from school heads to a variety of experts and BAM emerged from the process with the highest scores.

White Design’s Co-Founding Director, Linda Farrow, who will lead the practice’s Sustainability and Design Consultancy role, said she was delighted by the appointment:
“We are looking forward to making a long-term contribution to the delivery of education services through the Somerset Local Education Partnership (LEP). White Design’s knowledge and experience in design philosophy, design review and design methodology in the education sector will inform the LEP management team’s vision for education transformation.”

Rogiet Primary School in Monmouthshire has won the 2010 BREEAM Schools Award, announced on 3 March at the Ecobuild exhibition in Earls Court, London. Judges selected Rogiet primary school as the category winner from a shortlist of 3 schools completed in 2010, all of which have excelled under BREEAM.

Craig White, Director of White Design, said: “We are delighted that the teamwork which produced this result has been recognised.  With Monmouthshire County Council, who commissioned the building and Willmott Dixon, our construction partners, we shared an innovative approach and an ambition to make Rogiet school an exemplar of sustainable design, which BREEAM has enabled us to measure and celebrate”.

On completion in 2009, the 210-place Rogiet school achieved the highest rating of all BREEAM education schemes in the UK with its percentage score of 78.18%. Head teacher Kathryn Evans said: "We are privileged to have such a fantastic facility in which to learn".

A team headed by White Design is one of 87 projects across the UK selected to test low carbon building technologies in the second stage of the Technology Strategy Board’s Retrofit for the Future programme. Science Minister Lord Drayson and Housing Minister John Healey announced the winners on 25 February as part of the government’s £17 million investment in new solutions to make the UK’s current housing stock more energy efficient.
In the initial design phase, over 190 organisations - including housing associations, architects and construction companies - received up to £20,000 each to carry out full feasibility studies and devise innovative proposals. The 87 second-stage winners have now been awarded development contracts to carry out retrofits on existing homes.
White Design drew together a retrofit team with a wide range of skills and experience to enter the competition, including Forum for the Future, Sustain, Sustrans, ROK and Arup. Working closely with our housing association partner, SHHA, a Bristol based social housing provider specialising in supported housing, we selected a traditionally constructed, “2-up 2-down” Victorian terraced property for our project. Our scheme aims to investigate how we can incorporate simple, robust, yet effective sustainable technologies which will encourage residents to engage with low carbon lifestyles.

Two White Design projects have been named by Professor Tom Woolley in his list of the ten best natural building projects in the UK, in the January 2010 issue of Sustain magazine (Volume 10, issue 06).

Professor Woolley, an architect, envoronmental researcher and author of The Green Building Handbook, selected the Balehaus at Bath University as the most innovative example of low-impact construction methods. The Balehaus is designed by White Design as part of a Technology Strategy Board funded research project to develop prefabricated strawbale housing for the mainstream housing market. 

White Design has been appointed to design a combined infant and junior school in Caldicott, through Monmouthshire County Council's primary school framework.

Project architect Nick James said: "We are delighted to be continuing our long-term relationship with Willmott Dixon Construction and Monmouthshire County Council and we hope to build on the success of our earlier projects at Kymin View, Llanfoist and Rogiet."

Juniors at Green Lane primary will share space with the infants school next door when building work begins in 2011.

White Design’s consultancy team is to co-author a Design Guide for Gower in a project supported by Swansea City Council, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Countryside Council for Wales. Chosen for its classic coastline and outstanding natural environment, Gower was the first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to be designated in 1956.
Working in partnership with town planning consultancy Nathaniel Lichfield, we will be providing guidance on the architecture, sustainability and landscape elements of the document, beginning with a full ‘character assessment’ of both the built environment and the rural landscape. The Design Guide, due for publication in December 2010, is expected to underpin development and inform planning application procedures across Gower.

The Levellers community in White Design is sponsoring a guide dog puppy called Otis. Jonny Marrion received his sponsor’s certificate as a “secret Santa” gift and is looking forward to receiving  regular “pupdates” on Otis’s progress through 20 months of puppy training school. Jonny and colleagues plan to visit Otis at the Guide Dogs Association sponsors’ open day in July 2010.

White Design's Dartington Primary School is to be the focus of the January 2010 Exeter Architecture Forum.  Project architect Andrew Docherty will talk about our design for a school community whose strong environmental ethos we closely share.  Commissioned by Devon County Council, the £6m school will provide places for 420 pupils and is due for completion in late January 2010.

The Exeter Architecture Forum, launched in 2008 by Rob Hilton and Christine Lawrence, focuses on significant new projects in the region. The Dartington talk takes place at the Exeter Phoenix media centre, Bradninch Place, Gandy Street, Exeter EX4 3LS  at 7 pm, Thursday 21 January 2010. For tickets and further details please email exeterarchitectureforum@hotmail.com.

It was confirmed today that Rogiet Primary School in Monmouthshire has achieved the highest rating of all BREEAM Schools/Education schemes in the UK with its percentage score of 78.18%.

Commissioned by Monmouthshire County Council, Rogiet is a 210-place school with community facilities. At the open day on Friday 6 November 2009, head teacher Kathryn Evans said:

“So much credit and thanks must go to the building designers, White Design, and Willmott Dixon Construction team. They really have thought of every opportunity to make this a state of the art learning environment for the pupils ..... we are privileged to have such a fantastic facility in which to learn”.

Rogiet Primary School in Monmouthshire is celebrating winning a Green Flag in the Eco Schools international award programme. Through the school's Eco Club, pupils have been closely involved with the environmental features of their new school such as rainwater harvesting and energy generation by wind turbine. The children will now help to audit the building's performance.

Head teacher Kathryn Evans said: "We are all very excited by the school's environmental features. Watching water pour through the rainwater harvesting pipe (and there has been plenty of that over the past few weeks!), seeing the windows adjust themselves, moving the whiteboards in class, are all reminders to us that we are privileged to have such a fantastic facility in which to learn."

Rogiet Primary School, designed by White Design with Willmott Dixon Construction, recently recorded the highest BREEAM 'Excellent' score for primary schools in Wales.

White Design is one of five practices invited to contribute to the exhibition 'Art, Ecology and the Economy', at the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW) in Haldon Forest, Exeter. By showcasing how selected organisations have risen to the challenge of climate change and the economic downturn, the exhibition aims to encourage local creative arts businesses to adopt practices which will help them to become more sustainable and enhance local distinctiveness. The project is supported by Greater Dartmoor LEAF (Local Enterprise Action Fund) and runs from Saturday 16 January to Sunday 28 Mar 2010. Please see www.ccanw.co.uk for full details.

White Design, working with Willmott Dixon construction, has recently completed a new school which has scored 78.18% in the BREEAM Excellent rating - the highest achievement in Wales to date.  Rogiet Primary School-Ysgol Gynradd Rogiet, commissioned by Monmouthshire County Council, is a 210-place school with community facilities. At the open day on Friday 6 November 2009, head teacher Kathryn Evans said:

“So much credit and thanks must go to the building designers, White Design, and Willmott Dixon Construction team. They really have thought of every opportunity to make this a state of the art learning environment for the pupils ..... we are privileged to have such a fantastic facility in which to learn”.

The school is aiming to gain a green flag in the Eco-School programme, having already won a silver award in 2008. The Eco-committee raised £1000 earlier this year to create a sensory garden for the new site.

8 members of the White Design team took part in ‘Movember’ 2009, raising £450 for The Prostate Cancer Charity.

Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, with over 173,000
supporters across the globe. So far the charity has raised over £30m and has helped to spread health messages about early detection, diagnosis and treatment to millions of people.

At the start of Movember (November 1st) participants must be clean shaven and then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their moustache. Although women are encouraged to get involved by sporting false moustaches, the 8 participants from White Design were all male. Only one colleague has chosen to keep his ‘mo’ permanently ....

Building work is progressing well on the site of the new Oxford Academy and Mabel Prichard Special Needs School which will replace the former Peers School in Littlemore, Oxford. The steel structure for the sports block and concrete slab for Mabel Prichard school are on schedule for completion in early December while the learning resource centre, arts, science and general teaching blocks are all taking shape. Completion is due in December 2010. To see photos of the building’s progress on site,please link to the dedicated construction site: http://oxford.white-design.co.uk

White Design's Builder of the Month Award recognises the hard work that sub-contractors contribute to produce wonderful buildings for our clients. The latest winner at our John Ferneley High School site in Melton Mowbray is Derry Cooper of Scaffold Services Ltd.

Every month we ask the main contractor to nominate an organisation or individual who in their opinion has gone that little bit further to ensure the building is the best that it can possibly be. We then ask the school children to design a certificate which is presented to the lucky team or individual at the design team meeting. 

John Ferneley is an 800-place secondary school building which will replace the existing John Ferneley High School. Construction began in November 2008 and the school will be open in Easter 2010. You can read about progress on site on our dedicated John Ferneley website http://johnferneley.white-design.co.uk

The charity Surf Sufficient uses surfing as part of its mission to generate funding and raise awareness of the regeneration of Weligama, a Sri Lankan settlement that was devastated by the tsunami. 

In 2008 White Design agreed to sponsor Surf Sufficient by donating resources to work with the charity's founder to design a new community development that will help the settlement get back to a normal way of life. We were able to help the owners develop a brief for a sustainable surf lodge, with additional facilities for local people and a strong community focus.  All profits from the lodge are being put back into the community to aid regeneration. The project also aims to promote the use of locally sourced materials, techniques and skills to counter-act the overwhelming use of concrete in new build projects around the country. 

For details and photographs of a visit to Weligama by White Design team member Louise Southwell to help with this project, please click here to go to the dedicated website. Since leaving White Design to continue her architectural studies, Louise has continued to develop her interest in sustainable tourism.