ABSTRACT
In practice we continue to maintain that our architecture should be a response to a specific context and its local community. This chapter presents a case study on Cottrell and Vermeulen Architects, which was founded in 1992, and is a small to medium practice of 18, based in London. They work primarily on education, community, housing, health, arts, residential, landscape and master-planning projects. The practice views its buildings as the result of a dialogue between practice and research. Aside from their interest in designing environments that enable and encourage learning, they have increasingly found that schools are among the few remaining places in their society where communities come together. In 2003 they contributed to the Department for Education and Skills publication Building Schools for the Future. Using the specific knowledge of learning environments that they had gained from practice, they formulated concepts and ideas for an exemplar primary school design.
