Horsham Special School focuses on delivering individualised education to students with a wide range of disabilities aged five to eighteen. The school is designed with a variety of active and passive learning and play spaces, indoors and out, to support the teachers in delivering an individualised and diverse curriculum. The building encloses a large central courtyard with no hidden corners, while the teaching spaces surrounding the courtyard allow constant but discreet supervision, maintaining student safety without the use of confining fences and gates.
Tactile materials and coloured surfaces spark the imagination of students while providing subtle cues to help orientate students around the campus. Practical requirements such as immediate access to toilets and kitchenettes and DDA are seamlessly integrated throughout the building, as are ESD strategies such as maximising day light and cross ventilation, night purging, solar chimney and thermal mass.
