St Mary’s Calne School Library

Site St Mary’s Calne is an independent boarding and day school in Wiltshire for approximately 360 girls aged 11 to 18. Founded in 1873 by Canon John Duncan, it is the top performing school in the southwest and ranked 35th in the national rankings. The site for the new library forms part of an existing green space at the heart of the 25 acre campus alongside a mature orchard of nearly thirty apple trees and will complete a cluster of shared facilities including the main reception, Chapel and refectory. Vision The vision for the project is “to provide an inspiring academic environment which fosters in our pupils a love of learning, creativity, debate and scholarship.” From this, three key points were established to elaborate the vision: Investigative, Imaginative, Reflective An intellectually stimulating, exciting place to go, allowing autonomous learning, focus and research through an interactive environment. A Place for Personal Growth Balancing EQ and IQ, a place to stay connected with the world outside and a place which encourages healthy debate. Culture of Collaboration Not a ‘hushed’ environment, but a place where collaborations are celebrated, including inviting spaces for all year groups. Brief As part of the design process and brief development, we worked with the Headmistress, staff, librarians and students in a number of workshops that explored how they, as the building users, wanted the building to work. The school would like a lively, collaborative hub and academic haven incorporating an innovative, agile learning environment and a home for the school’s reference and fiction book collections. The new building aims to prepare and inspire students for tertiary education by capturing the shift from passive, teacher-centred learning to technology rich, interactive learning. It will become a meeting place for forming and sharing ideas as well as a place for storing knowledge, combining the idea of an Orangery (nurturing and growing) and the orchard (fruition). Composition Designed as a stand-alone pavilion, the library is at the heart of the school, an architectural gem that encourages learning. The building layers from solidity to lightness and from internal to external, creating a sense of arrival and then discovery, culminating in framed views of the orchard. Five key ideas define the essence of the building: Unfolding Views With nearly a solid west elevation onto the service road, the modestly scaled entrance portico gives nothing away. Upon entering, a sense of drama is created instantly with long views across the space into the orchard beyond. The orientation of the building ensures that the glazed elevation is facing north-east, limiting solar gain and direct sunlight. Floating Roof The building encloses the western edge of the orchard creating a quadrangle reminiscent of traditional higher education institutions. The roof structure mimics the orchard trees, floating lightly on six slim steel columns and hovering above the more massive masonry shell. This forms an internal cluster of tree- like structures bringing the orchard into the building. Bookends Solid, brick boxes at either end of the plan provide ancillary accommodation and servicing, freeing up the central space for innovative and agile learning environments. Its smaller, cellular spaces conceal project spaces, reading rooms and creative media suites. A Central Heart The main, open stair occupies the centre of the building and is encircled by the naturally ventilated, IT-rich space designed to be flexible and adaptable for future change. The stair forms part of a larger project and gathering space at ground level, providing a focus for school events and presentations by visiting authors. Uninterrupted Learning Landscape The proposed building engages the orchard, blurring inside to outside. Three distinct landscape zones have been developed providing an invaluable educational tool by promoting botanical study, horticulture and healthy living: a biodiverse ‘moat’ of native and local species surrounds the building, the enhanced existing apple orchard contains a paved central terrace for outdoor learning and a new formally arranged herb garden situated to capture maximum sunlight and planted with herbaceous, perennial and evergreen plants. Interior and Materiality Internally the new library is planned over two levels, a lively, dynamic ground floor with direct access to the orchard and a quieter, formal upper level for more focused study. Conventional book racks have been avoided and to maximise the open space for learning the walls are lined with books, reading nooks and display zones. The ground level is loosely organised into three zones: the living zone, the project zone and the garden zone. The activity zone contains the library’s information desk, stair and collaboration space while a range of softer seating settings complement the nooks in the living zone and more moveable inside/outside furniture occupies the garden zone. At level one, the orchard view area increases in formality with a continuous, fixed individual study bench looking out across the tops of the fruit trees in the orchard. There are two dedicated enclosed presentation rooms in the project zone and a range of softer individual and group working settings in the study zone. The external materials palette comprises brick, glass and timber. A long, rose-beige coloured brick is hand set in Flemish bond with projecting headers, and includes jali masonry screens with the windows set behind. Full height glazed curtain walling maximises the visual connection to the orchard and frameless clerestory glazing emphasises the floating timber roof structure. Accentuated with projecting vertical fins, the glazing is enhanced with a bespoke undulating apple leaf pattern artwork designed by the students themselves. Internally, objects are either anchored or floating, with a family of bespoke joinery pieces unifying the design. Internal materials include solid oak (joinery, flooring and linings), exposed concrete and black metal with brass detailing. The natural colour palette is enhanced by fabric upholstery in apple reds and lush greens. Elements ‘carved’ from the landscape are polished concrete with thick timber linings, whilst inserted objects are more a filigree of metal or timber fins. Flooring is patterned timber at ground level with carpeting for soft seating areas, and conversely carpet at first floor with timber to the perimeter. The building displays the ethos of organic layers, refined spaces, detail and craft, contemporary but with a strong sense of context.