Cranleigh School: Masterplan

In the Spring of 2004, we are appointed by Cranleigh School to prepare a development plan for the Senior School site next 10-15 years. This was followed by a master plan study for the preparatory school site. We were then involved in the implementation of the initial phases of the master plan and worked on various projects at Cranleigh School until 2010. The school has continued to implement identified phases of the master plan both in the Senior and Junior School sites, renovating and adding to its impressive collection of buildings. 

The initial study was carried out in 2004; this was for a detailed study of the teaching buildings in the Senior School. This was prompted by a need to move the art department closer to the centre of the school as well as a long-needed upgrade  of science teaching facilities. Cranleigh’s main issues are obvious slack of space and ageing facilities. The study identified opportunities for expansion and redevelopment within parameters acceptable to the local authority. Phase 1 (academic centre) and Phase 2A (art school) of this plan were implemented by our practice. Planning consent for Phase 2B (design centre) has been granted at the same time as the academic centre. A new ‘Artist in Residence’ studio has also been built by the school in the context of this master plan.

In parallel, a detailed study for the teaching buildings of the Preparatory School was also prepared. This included a feasibility study for a new pre-prep school.

The two detailed master plans were conceived in the context of a site-wide strategy that looked at the rationalisation of sports fields and facilities and a strategy for staff and student accommodation. Following from this, a new synthetic playing field has been built, and additional playing fields have been created, as well as new boarding houses. 

One of the key elements of the master plan for Cranleigh School was a building stock assessment. We classified buildings in terms of their significance for the school, their overall quality both in terms of construction and educational and their expected life. The lack of past planning was evident, and ad-hoc solutions had created very poor use of the land available with small buildings effectively ‘polluting’ very good potential sites.

As part of the study, we carried out extensive consultation with the school community including meeting with all departments to fully understand first-hand their needs and wants. This is a time-consuming exercise but extremely useful in helping us helping the School setting priorities and agree on phasing. We also carried out in-depth research of the school archives to get a full understanding of the school’s history and the rationale behind some of the previous development. 

External consultation was also key and in the case of Cranleigh School, the master plan was presented to the local planning authority and was used as the starting point for the subsequents planning applications submitted for various projects. This demonstrated robust ‘joined-up-thinking’ and paved the way for a collaborative interaction with Waverley Borough Council resulting in relatively straightforward Planning Applications. 

The master plan identified urgent need for new accommodation to rehouse sciences. As the brief developed and the potential site was identified to the north of the campus, the opportunity to build a sizeable building came into focus. A smaller science-only building would not have made best use of the site available and the far-sighted decision was taken by Cranleigh leadership (including the governing body) to build the larger building which was planned to accommodate Modern Languages which had outgrown its home. This had the effect of propelling, or pushing the Arts Department close to the heart of the school – the ‘old’ modern languages building built in the 1960s, with large windows and adaptable space made for fantastic large art studios, while the charming original Science Block created more intimate spaces giving the art department an amazing new home.