Public Buildings • The Children’s Trust

A sustainable, collaborative hub for exceptional care, education, and therapy, enhancing connectivity and the local landscape.

A proposed scheme at Tadworth Court, Surrey, representing a sustainable and beautifully crafted facility that transcends the role of a traditional school, serving as an exemplar hub for exceptional care, education and therapy. Replacing an existing school, unfit for modern teaching and therapy purposes, the visionary project addresses existing physical and operational challenges and is the outcome of close collaboration with The Children’s Trust Charity, helping to realise the full potential of the site. The vision promotes passive sustainable strategies to minimise the operational energy use and the building’s environmental impact alongside improving connectivity within the site all while celebrating the local landscape.

55% increase in bespoke teaching spaces, and 900sqm of flexible spaces to support the whole campus

Designed for the specific sensory needs of children and young people.

Dedicated gardens to all classrooms - enhancing learning and connecting to nature.

Wayfinding and Navigation

The designs at Tadworth Court thoughtfully incorporate wayfinding strategies to create an intuitive and accessible environment for its users. Each building block is designed with a distinct character, each with a different roof form aiding navigation by providing clear visual cues about the building’s function.

The Transdisciplinary hub offers a shared space for collaboration and features a distinctive curved roof that rises to a prominent point, drawing attention to its entrance and ensuring it is an easily identifiable while cleverly concealing a rooftop plant area.

The architectural language of the classroom rooftops differs, with a unique sawtooth roof profile which is easily recognisable for children and optimises natural light and ventilation. These visual markers ensure the site is welcoming and easy to navigate for all users.

"We have been hugely impressed by RCKa’s collaborative approach and designs."

Dalton Leong, Chief Executive at The Children’s Trust

An Inclusive Consultation Process

From the outset, we worked closely with The Children’s Trust to help them re-evaluate their brief and assumptions, looking to create highly aspirational and adaptable facilities to support the Trust’s work and future needs.

We developed an engaging and inclusive consultation process which included group activities, one-to-one discussions and observations of the current site with users and stakeholders to develop a strategic and operational understanding of what was really needed. We sought to capture the charity’s holistic vision, and established four pillars that underpin our design: visibility of young people; nature and restorative heritage; connectivity and “a place for everyone”.

Playful and Sensitive Design

Simple materials are used in playful ways, with colour, pattern and texture used at different scales across the site to create a variety of engaging sensory experiences – informed by the Trust’s own research into the sensory needs of children and young people with brain injuries and neuro-disabilities.

Farrer Huxley Landscape Architects worked alongside us to design a varied and richly textured landscape that flows between the buildings, creating fluid boundaries between internal and external spaces. The arrangement as a whole offers a series of stimulating and carefully-considered indoor and outdoor spaces that can adapt to the needs of the Trust and the buildings’ users for years to come.

Client 
The Children’s Trust

Status 
Planning Approved

Location
Tadworth, Surrey

Project Team 
Chris Barnes
Alice Gordon
Sam Letchford
Holly Le Var
Tahera Rouf

Landscape 
Farrer Huxley

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