RIBA Regional Awards 2014: Yorkshire
Oakfield Special Educational Needs School, Hull
Wright and Wright Architects for Oakfield School
Contract £9.6m. GIA 4,760m2
No shapeism here: the architect keeps everything plain, simple and crisply rectilinear. It’s tough as it has to be, its users being around 90 primary and secondary boys with social, emotional and behavioural disorders, or SEBD. Large windows and generous courtyards provide high levels of daylight and corridors are wider than the norm, forming a loop with no potentially troublesome dead ends. The layout allows discreet surveillance but is dignified, calm, humane, tolerant. ‘It was a humbling experience to visit this incredible school, which has been designed with great care and consideration for its staff and pupils,’ the judges report.
