The team

Stuart Phillips, business manager at the school and senior project co-ordinator for the Discovery Centre Project said, We chose Demco Interiors because they listened during the early development stages and showed that their understood the brief to create a space that would inspire learning and exploration.”

Demco worked closely with the school team and also liaised closely with DHP, the building design consultants, to make sure the interior design was fully blended and integrated into the whole build.

Multiple objectives

The objective for the new Centre was to provide a fully supported space to extend opportunities to students and support the development of study skills, with access to a range of resources and IT.

It will also be made available to the community, to provide a fantastic venue for business and leisure events.

Phillips adds, “It was very important that the new build should contribute to the whole school academic achievement and offer children, across Woking, the opportunity to be engaged in learning.

The goal was to imagine a vibrant space for independent learning where students could decide how they wanted to work, study, research, meet.  The Demco design team set about designing an interior that would be exciting and dynamic but also encourage self-directed work and in particular create plenty of space for written work which had been unavailable in the original school library.

The design

Upstairs planetarium  
Demco installed white study benching with purple detailing around it, which they carefully crafted on site to fit seamlessly around the curve of the dome.    

Ground floor library
There are large tables for individual and group study, a small quieter reading area, a bright, vibrant casual seating area, and a reading area with shelving and integrated seating.

Demco designed and space planned the books and reading areas using their own Boreal Connect library shelving in shades of white and grey. The shelving creates its own statement with bright blue integrated seating and cool fresh white 'feature frame' cladding. Bright orange end of bay display shelves add a pop of colour and complement the orange sofas in the relax zone diagonally opposite.

Although the new building follows the style of the main school with its red brick structure, the interior design allows its own personality to shine through. Colour themes of orange, duck egg blue, orange, yellow and purple create a striking but zen like feel that students, staff and parents love. "It's more like a university styled space - open and bright with self-directed use of space", said one library assistant.

Reflecting the school’s core competencies

The school ethos is built around five core competencies - Collaboration, Resilience, Analysis, Ingenuity, Communication and the words are displayed graphically on bright yellow and feature insets throughout both floors of the new building.

"It doesn’t only look great but it also changes the way that students use the library space” said Dan Fisher, Librarian. “Instead of just teacher led work this space is all about independent learning rather than just lesson focussed. It may be research, or reading, or analysis. The design and furnishings scope the space to be more than just lesson focused and allow students to work around the competencies."