THE CARSTAIRS PRIMARY SCHOOLS WERE PART OF SOUTH LANARKSHIRE'S MODERNISATION PROGRAMME, A PROCESS THAT AHR HAS DELIVERED WITH MORGAN SINDALL SINCE 2006. THE CARSTAIRS PRIMARIES WERE DESIGNED OVER THE SAME PERIOD.
Both schools have been designed to work in tandem with their surroundings to create external civic spaces as part of the community. The designs are outward rather than inward looking and provides an open frontage to welcome visitors into the building. This provides a welcoming, accessible frontage to the building for segregated pedestrians and vehicles.
The secure, private playgrounds are the locations for the majority of landscape features where pupils can play and learn in safety and with minimal supervision. The area contains a range of hard surfaces and grassed surfaces contributing to a variety of activity experiences selected in consultation with pupils and staff.
The design of play areas within the grounds has been approached with the aim of providing a strong and positive effect on the children's behaviour and thus upon the school ethos as a whole. The landscape features are a rich educational resource for learning combined with fun and adventure for the pupils.
The designs optimise all the available space on their sites and exploit the challenging site topography, the existing landscape resource and tandem build restrictions to offer a bespoke and unique educational and social facility for the community of Carstairs.