AR-Architects in Cheshire

Afzal Raniwalla Architectural Design

AR-Architects is joint venture Design Company formed in January 2004. It is an alliance between two experienced architects, Essaji Raniwalla of ER-A Consultancy and Riaz Afzal of Initiative Architects. Both architects have over thirty years experience in the design and implementation of major projects in the public sector, particularly schools and housing.

The Directors believe in managing the company to ensure their personal involvement in projects from inception to completion. They are committed to design and construction process that promotes active collaboration and participation from their clients and stakeholders, and all the members of the construction team. They aim to provide appropriate and robust design solutions using well-proven and sustainable technologies that embrace all the current green issues.

The company is committed to continually improving its services to offer a better-designed environment that achieves the client's goals within its programme, financial constraints, and with a better understanding of Life Cycle costs.

Architecture Services

The company provides a full range of architectural services in the schools and housing sectors using a variety of procurement methods including PFI, Design and Build and Partnering Contracts.

AR-Architects specialises in the following:

Sure Start Nurseries and Children Centre
Primary and Secondary Schools, including Special Needs
School sites/ Campus Master Planning
Public Sector Housing
Urban Design
CABE Enabling
Client Design Adviser

In addition to the above the following services are also available:

Project management
Accredited Eco Home assessments
3D modelling and visulisations

Architecture Projects Portfolio

AR-Architects have produced the following architectural projects and designs:

Medlock Valley 2FE Primary School

This is a new, 2 FE, 420 place school located in a future Housing Regeneration Area and has been designed to facilitate a reduction in school roll whereby part of school accommodation can be altered into other community uses. The built form is in response to serious security issues in the area and incorporates a 'secured by Design' brief.

The security issues have been addressed at four levels, namely perimeter fencing, security cameras covering the grounds, external shutters to all ground floor windows, and internal cameras covering the circulation areas.
The building form and construction details reflect the acute nature of the above security issues.
The client stated they had only a limited budget for maintenance and therefore it was important to select durable material with a good and secure supply chain and life cycle costs.
AR-A provided design options to agree with the clients the optimum location of the school so it could be used as a catalyst for the Regeneration of the Fitton Hill area.
The site was an original housing site with many buried live services that had to remain.
The site is steeply slopping and it was imperative to locate the school foot pint in the optimum location to reduce cut and fill and carting away of material on sustainable grounds.

Despite the many disadvantages of the site and its location it was paramount for the school's design to still convey the fostering of learning and teaching opportunities. AR-Architects tackled this aspect by engaging the stakeholders at first hand, listening and taking on board their concerns and address them in the design process for the school.

Blackshaw Lane 1FE Primary School

The new school is a replacement of the existing school on the same, very restricted site. The design incorporates several features to promote environmental awareness such as a courtyard with scented garden for the Infants and Nursery children.

The school is located in a well settled 'village' community in Oldham and the design is in response to an active involvement of the key stakeholders.

The design options had to give consideration to the following:

The existing school was in a nearly dilapidated Victorian Building. The new school had to be accommodated within the existing site with the existing school remaining operational.
Temporary decant was ruled out during early stages for cost and operational reasons.
AR-Architects with its construction partner developed a detailed phasing and operational plan to ensure a safe learning environment which was effectively within a construction site. In both schools it was paramount that the school's design took cognisance of the practical problems of the constrained sites without losing the stakeholders' aspirational goals of achieving a high quality learning environment.
AR-Architects through its Landscape Architects Sub-consultants, worked closely with 'Learning through Landscapes' and 'Ground Works Trust' to provide a balanced design solution. The completed building achieved the design objectives being emphasised by CABE.
The successful completion of the projects was achieved through the collaborative partnership between the Design and Construction Teams.

The school authorities were keen to promote the 'green' agenda in both of the school and allowed the inclusion of 'low tech' devices to meet their sustainable targets. The school is designed and constructed to maximise passive solar gains through orientation and heavy masonry construction. Measures included are wall mounted turbines for Educational purpose, ventilated sun tubes to allow day light to the ground floor circulation areas and rainwater harvesting.

Children Centre Huntcliff School

The funding for the Children Centre was identified in early 2005 with the requirement for the building to be completed within the first quarter of 2006. The site had therefore to be strategically located so as to ensure the existing Huntcliff school could continue to operate during the construction of the Children centre.

The Authority commissioned AR-Architects for full Architectural service to undertake the design and see through the construction of the Children Centre. This project had to be completed within a very stringent time scale and had to be accommodated within the frame work of the Master Plan.

The Children Centre is the first phase of the Saltburn Learning Campus. It has been designed to provide:

Nursery Care for 40 children aged between 0-5 as well as Sure Start facilities including a Training Room.
A Primary Care Trust Suite linking seamlessly with the Children's Centre and offering essential services to be used by Pre-Primary and Secondary Schools. Services include Health Visiting, District Nursing, Family Planning and Podiatry.
A totally, naturally ventilated building which includes lighting technologies using optical fibres to capture and distribute sunlight into interior parts of the building.
An environment which facilitates a comprehensive sharing of facilities, including external play areas.

Huntcliff School Site - Masterplan

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council planned to redevelop the existing Huntcliff School site as an integrated educational facility to comprise a Children's Centre, a 420 place Primary School with Early Years facilities, currently operating from split sites, and a 600 place Secondary School to replace the existing out of date one, on the site.

To ensure a cohesive development of the various facilities Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council commissioned AR-Architects to prepare a Master Plan/Strategic Development Plan for the Huntcliff School site.

This plan had to be prepared in full consultation with the stakeholders, the Planning Department, the Borough Highways Department and Sports England. The consultations took place in Design Forums that were facilitated by AR-A.

The key aims of the Master Plan were:

To identify constraints for the future development.
To identify opportunities for the development.
To evaluate the various options and formulate a flexible development strategy.
To improve the vehicular access to the Huntcliff site.
To mitigate the effects of traffic congestion immediately outside the school entrance.
To identify the design and development strategy that would enhance collaborative working practices between all the new facilities.
To ensure that all the car parking and servicing requirements could be accommodated within the SLC boundary.
To develop a phasing strategy that would allow the continued functioning of the existing Huntcliff School during the construction stages.
To agree mitigation measures for the loss of green areas with Sports England.
To maximize the building of new facilities on the footprint of the existing school, by careful phasing and selective demolition.

The Master Plan and the Development Strategy are based on the philosophy of sharing and gaining for all stakeholders. The authority has seen this as a unique integrated development that will provide a state of the art facility for the Community of Saltburn.

Lyndhurst / Springbrook School

The new Lyndhurst and Spring Brook EBD School is a replacement under one roof of two existing schools on two separate sites.

Lyndhurst is a 2FE, 420 place primary school, with a 30 place nursery and Spring Brook accommodates pupils of all ages with statements, who will be taught in small groups of six. The design also includes extensive training and community facilities to serve the strategic requirements of Oldham MBC.

AR-Architects provided a design solution that addressed various complex issues:

Lyndhurst School was originally built in 1925 and was severely criticised by Ofsted for its restricted, sub-standard accommodation with significant condition and suitability issues.
Spring Brook School, an EBD School was recognised by Ofsted as a centre of excellence, and provides support to mainstream schools where behaviour management is a recognised concern.
The Council required AR-Architects to prepare Option Studies to demonstrate how a new combined school could be designed under one roof, on the existing Lyndhurst School site, and retain the individuality of the two schools (Together but Separate).
OMBC also required conferencing and community facilities within the school that could be also used by external agencies. The contractor was to provide ICT Infrastructure and wiring only with the provision of hardware and software to be undertaken directly by OMBC.
The Council required an emphasis to be placed upon the longer term sustainability of the buildings through life-cycle costing processes, with as many 'green' elements contained within the buildings as could be cost effectively included within the overall financial constraints.

The new schools were to be designed to be naturally ventilated and with the maximum natural light in all teaching/ learning areas.

AR-Architects interpreted the brief and evolved the successful design by:

Facilitating Envisioning sessions and Design Workshops involving both the schools, relevant stakeholders and ICT providers.
AR-A spent considerable amount of time in understanding and interpreting the learning and teaching aspirations of the school authorities, the teaching staff and the pupils. The sketch design and particularly the adjacencies were discussed in great details with all concerned on an ongoing basis.
AR-Architects achieved the Council's sustainability targets for this school by including in the design, features such as; wind catchers which are used in the internal spaces for natural ventilation; two story high 'conservatory' to allow day light into the heart of the school; building with thermal mass; rainwater harvesting and also roof mounted turbines for educational purposes.

The school design is within the authority's budget and is on target for operation in September 2007.

Pinfold Primary School

This is a 2 FE school with a 39 FTE nursery, located in Hattersley Housing Estate which is part of the larger housing regeneration area. The new premises have been designed to accommodate wide scale community uses and are a catalyst for the general regeneration strategy.

The school design incorporates two halls, one of which is designed to accommodate community badminton court. The learning facilities are in two distinct wings with KS1 and the Early Years occupying one wing and KS2 the other. The ICT and the library areas have been aggregated to form one larger space that is naturally lit and ventilated, and accessible directly from the 'junior' learning bases.

Alder Community High School

This is the largest of the three schools that formed part of the Hattersley Schools PFI.

This is a 6 FE school that incorporates a variety of learning spaces with good natural lighting and ventilation, extensive community facilities, two halls in addition to and a six court Sports Hall, and space to run a privately managed health club.

It has been operational since 2002 and due to its continued success the school authority is currently considering extending its ICT facilities.

Arundale Primary School

This is one of the three PFI schools for Tameside located in the Hattersley housing regeneration area.

This is a single form entry school with community facilities and a 24 FTE nursery. Like the other two, this school is also an important catalyst in the regeneration of this area.

The school is built using tried and tested material in a challenging area where security has been an issue. The teaching areas have an average ceiling height of 3.0m to ensure air movement for complete natural ventilation. The orientation and the siting of the building have been considered with the view to minimising solar gains and avoiding damage to the existing natural features.

New Bridge SEN School

This was a design for a Special Need School to cater for pupils with severe physical disabilities and for those requiring behaviour support. The school was designed with an atrium that accommodated a ramp from ground to first floor, a large performance studio and two swimming pools, one of them being a Hydro therapy pool.

What the Council said about the design:
"4.1.3 The Architect proposed was not only the winning designer of Medlock Valley and Black Shaw Lane School but also he produced a very good design for the New Bridge School, which was equally innovative in comparison with the winning submission."

Contact AR-Architects, Northwich in Cheshire

Email us at essaji@ar-archiects.com or telephone us on 01606 853900. You can fax us on 01606 852679.
All mail enquiries should be addressed to AR-Architects, 48 High Street, Weaverham, Northwich, Cheshire, CW8 3HB.

Architectural Links & Resources

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