DARTMOUTH COMMUNITY COLLEGE

This was a great opportunity to work with an exciting and lively client in the form of the art department at Dartmouth Community College who had the desire to develop and improve the buildings they had with a flagship project that would signify the school’s recent award of Special Arts Status.

The building has been designed to provide valuable teaching and studio space for all areas of art and design but most importantly to have an ability by way of its robust and open plan nature to provide an area for sculpture both to be created and then displayed. The curved form of the design allows the front windows to become a gallery at the entrance of the school and as such the building has formed a space that works well as both a venue for displaying and entertaining in line with the many events put on by the school.

The building is finished in a contemporary fashion utilising modern materials and makes a statement of intent toward new buildings and department expansion in the future.

Highly insulated walls and underfloor heating within an integral concrete slab are incorporated to create a very efficient addition which presents as little drain as possible on existing services and energy requirements which are continually a financial challenge to the campus as a whole.