SEN School for award-winning providers The Aurora Group that breathes new life into a 1970s Brutalist slab building, overhauling the former adult learning centre with a deep retrofit that offers much-needed new learning opportunities to vulnerable young people in Derby.
Set within a relatively constrained site a short distance from the city centre, the new school is designed to facilitate The Aurora Group’s exceptional education and support for children and young people with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) or additional social, emotional and mental health needs.
Externally, the landscape is reconfigured to provide different types of play, learning and exercise. Addressing the change in level across the site, a new terraced garden is introduced, forming an outdoor classroom that strengthens the school’s connection to the natural environment, designed to complement the Brutalist style of the original building.
Upgrading the building envelope, original textured concrete cladding panels are retained, repaired, impregnated and refinished to smarten the appearance and prolong their useable lifespan. Large expanses of flat roof have been upgraded with new warm-deck construction laid to falls, with a generous photovoltaic array across the upper roof.
The building’s geometric simplicity and generous proportions internally provide a strong framework for adaptive reuse. Spaces are reorganised to support The Aurora Group’s “stage not age” pedagogy, with inclusive learning environments for science, food technology, music and everything in between.
The clarity of configuration belies the complexity of construction beneath however. It was only on site that the building’s subterfuge was revealed: what looked like a structural concrete frame was in fact steel encased in a precast concrete fire-proofing system needing unexpected levels of TLC; swathes of timber-effect flooring in fact a Granwood product that could not safely be retained; the web-like tracery of surface-mounted of conduits and sockets a mere distraction from concealed chaos of voids, channels and shafts within and without the building that were discovered as works commenced.
To ensure the new school can best support the The Aurora Group in delivering award-winning education and care, spaces are calm, adaptable and clear of unnecessary physical clutter. Clarity is key, from circulation to classroom configuration.
Rationalising service routes across the building with high quality low-energy fittings helps limit operation energy and drive the scheme towards Net-Zero. Embodied carbon is minimised through the reuse of existing structure, construction and finishes, including materials such as parquet flooring, with ligh-touch upgrades of the existing lift infrastructure, supported by circular economy principles. These features allows the intervention to not only extend the lifespan of a neglected civic building but also sustain an inclusive learning environment.
Our design approach prioritises retention of the existing fabric, significantly reducing embodied carbon while introducing essential upgrades to servicing, thermal performance, and building envelope.
Material reuse and circular economy principles underpin the strategy, including the retention of parquet flooring and adaptation of existing elements.
Beyond its function as a school, the project illustrates how architecture can extend the life of undervalued buildings. This is achieved by embedding unused structures back into their communities through design that is socially responsive, environmentally responsible, and contextually sensitive.
Aurora Ryefields School was delivered by contractors Pure and continues a successful ongoing collaboration between e-gg, The Aurora Group and Archway Building Consultancy, improving the lives of hundreds of people across the country by creating SEN learning environments in otherwise under-loved spaces. All photos by French&Tye, with additional imagery from e-gg
