This new purpose-built Early Years nursery, with capacity for 100 nursery places, delivered the increased nursery provision required by Clackmannanshire Council.

The nursery was designed to achieve an open plan layout incorporating a series of sub-zones capable of dealing with different age groups and activities, with support spaces being directly accessed from the play area, maximising visibility, where possible.  The play area opened to an external play space to the south via large sliding glazed doors, ensuring good connection between inside and outside play spaces, creating potential for the outside nursery sought by the client.

The massing of the facility has been carefully considered to create a distinct and recognisable building which respects the scale of the retained school and its immediate neighbours.  A fairly traditional pitched roof ‘barn’, clad in dark grey wave profiled cladding, features cut-outs at key reference points, notably the main entrance and covered play.  The roofline of the main volume is broken by the windcatchers (passive stack ventilation) and in-plane rooflights are included to allow for natural light to be brought deep into the plan (above the main play area).  Support accommodation in flat roofed blocks extend from the main volume, in part to reflect the design of the existing school, but importantly to reduce the scale of the building externally immediately next to where the children will go out to play.  These elements contrast to the stark cladding of the main volume, with composite cladding to resemble timber boarding and the use of accent colours for doors and windows add to interest and can be used as learning/directional tools for children using the building.