Align Architecture, one of Birmingham’s emerging talents, recently helped Moor Hall Primary School achieve planning permission for a building extension.

The school, which has built a reputation for providing high-quality education to all its pupils, required the extension to improve the school’s facilities and provide staff with additional early years learning space.

Align was appointed to create a sustainable proposal that would make best use of the available space, outlining plans for a new extension alongside refurbishment works that could accommodate a 60-pupil classroom.

The proposed development entails the demolition of a partition between two existing classrooms to provide one large, flexible space – refurbishment works have also been proposed to the existing reception classroom to create a new main reception and administration area.

The access has been reconfigured and the external play space rejuvenated to reflect the proposed changes to the school buildings.

Principal Architect at Align, Nick Clewer commented: “Moor Hall Primary School is well-known for its commitment to quality, boasting an experienced team of teaching staff and a comprehensive range of facilities.

“We were engaged to design an extension that would help create much-needed early years teaching space – a 60-person classroom that would contribute to the sustainability of the school’s site.

“While it was important to offer a proposal that would be practical for its intended use, it was vital that the extension did not compromise on style and was visually appealing within the site.

“All aspects of the design process were carried out with consideration given to health & safety aspects of the proposal – combining our experience and industry knowledge to design a flexible large teaching space that would be an asset to the school.

“This included details of refurbishment works to an existing classroom, creating a modern main reception area and administration area.”

Andrew Steggall, Headteacher at Moor Hall Primary School, said: “In order to continue delivering the high-quality educational experiences that parents and pupils expected, we required a new large teaching space to accommodate our classes.

“We engaged Align Architecture as we knew they had experience helping other schools with similar projects and could trust their expertise to deliver a proposal that ticked all the boxes.

“Not only did they deliver a practical teaching space that matched our size requirements, but they understood our ambitions to create a modern classroom that would be visually appealing and sustainable.

“They successfully delivered a proposal that exceeded our expectations and addressed all of the key objectives we had originally set out.

“We’re very much looking forward to seeing the final result and would recommend Align Architecture to any other educational organisation looking to expand their existing premises.”

Through the proposal of the extended and updated teaching space, Align aimed to deliver a high quality educational experience which operated practically while contributing to the modernisation of the school.

Align hope that the scheme exceeded expectations and addressed all of the key objectives set out to provide a visually appealing and sustainable design solution for the school community.