Hansfield Educate Together Secondary School, Dublin

The Educate Together Secondary School (ETSS) at Hansfield forms part of an education campus with the adjoining National School and accommodates 1000 pupils.

It comprises a series of linked classroom blocks arranged around two landscaped courtyards, separated by a library and learning support nucleus to promote social and learning interaction. This arrangement focuses the views inwards and away from the barren surroundings outside the school complex.

The corridors have been designed as an extension to the learning spaces and as a place for social interaction, with sections widened to facilitate group and individual informal study.

A restricted material palette resolved the inherent conflict between DoES cost limits and the planners ambitions for a gateway development. Elevations comprise white rendered panels, glazed screens with feature colour panels and clay facing brickwork arranged in differing patterns. Low pitch roofs and services are concealed by parapet walls establishing a simple interlocking ‘box’ forms to the architecture.

The School was one of the first to be self-certified through the new BC(A)R legislation system in Ireland.