Table Talks with the BAA - Houlton School

Join us for an engaging table-talk by van Heyningen & Haward Partner, James McCosh, on the design and delivery of the RIBA West Midlands Award 2023 and RIBA Reinvention Award 2023 winning Houlton School in Rugby.

Houlton School is the new 6FE + 6th Form secondary school at the heart of Urban & Civic PLCs new community at Rugby. Houlton will provide 6,200 homes on the site of the former Rugby Radio Station. Our proposals involve the creative adaption of the striking 1926 listed transmitter building, C Station, and the creation of three new buildings, open spaces and playing fields to form a coherent school campus. The project plays to our strengths: within the historic environment, with low energy design, and with buildings for learning. The project successfully restores and repurposes the historic buildings as an integral part of a highly sustainable, purposeful and distinctive secondary school that is a key attraction for those considering living at Houlton. In delivering a new state school for Urban & Civic which faces the challenges of the climate emergency through reuse and renewal, we believe the opportunities the building opens up for the future extend beyond the pupils themselves, but also to add to the dialogue within the architectural community as to how can we successfully renew and reduce energy use in existing listed structures.

James McCosh (Josh) is principal of van Heyningen and Haward Architects. With over 25 years of experience, he is instrumental in developing the practices ability to lead teams that deliver excellent buildings, both new build and retrofit that provide contemporary facilities with excellent performance, and adopting passivhaus design methodologies and evidence-based life-cycle carbon assessment, as he sees these as the way to help clients future-proof their buildings and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon future. He was lead partner on the award winning Houlton School and is currently leading the re-order the Grade II* Leicester Cathedral (on site), including wholly new building services and a four storey, passivhaus-inspired, extension. Josh sits on York Minster’s Fabric Advisory Committee, and on the volunteers group currently drafting LETI’s Non-Domestic Retrofit Guide.

This project is a great example of how we can retrofit our historic buildings to safeguard their future. It is a testament to the value we place on our historic building stock and demonstrates that, even within the challenging context of designing a school building with so many challenges and constraints, a successful retrofit can be achieved with vision, creativity, and ambition.(Riba Journal, 2023)

Don't miss this opportunity to gain insights into the transformative power of retrofitting in educational architecture. Join us for an enlightening discussion that promises to inspire and inform.

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