The information has finally started flowing. After a week of preparing precedence we finally ventured out on site and met Jane Farrow, our contact at the council, for a very thorough meeting.
First Impressions
Eyes peeled looking for the sign to take us off the ring road, we swerved off at the sight of a tiny little arrow pointing towards the school and plenty of big arrows indicating business parks. Fifty metres down the road is the main school entrance sign (behind a telephone pole), an unchanging, dull driveway ferries visitors to a (currently) bland wall of potential Trespa cladding and the old design technology k-block that we are charged with cladding. Not a particularly nice way to arrive! Although landscaping is set to be completed in the summer of 2011, I can't help wondering how exactly a few trees and some grassy mounds will uplift the dreary sense of arrival and distract you from the alien K-block. How about a superb cladding system? Yup that might just do it...
After a short introduction to the plans and a few enquires, we booted up and headed on out to look around the school and be shown the plot of land proposed for the trim trail. It was slimmer than we had imagined and it appears that a conventional 'trim trail' fitness strip is not what is really needed but rather an outdoor learning area, particularly for the science department. We can run along as little or as much of the side of the school as we like however we must stick within the walking and studded boots pathways. At the south east end of the school there is a three tier wetlands pond which could be integrated in to our design in some way.
