Boclair Academy
Glasgow, Scotland - School
Leading education design.
Located north west of Glasgow in Bearsden, Ryder was appointed to design the new Boclair Academy for East Dunbartonshire Council through the SCAPE framework. The brief and adjacencies of the school create a series of flexible learning spaces arranged around key learning plazas in a highly efficient plan to accommodate 1,050 secondary pupils.
The plan is arranged to ensure that pupils in various years can see the pupils in other years, learning and working together throughout the school in a similar way. Likewise, teachers have been encouraged to embrace the spatial design of the building to deliver their teaching in alternative and more informal ways throughout the school.
The whole site is developed as an eco campus to provide a valuable study resource, enhance local biodiversity, and create an attractive and welcoming environment to study, work and play in.
The building responds to its semi rural landscape setting by adopting a low, ground hugging form to maximise connections with external spaces and minimise the scale of the school.
From arrival up an accessible, tree lined pedestrian walkway across the entire site, landscaping creates a purposeful, welcoming experience. Healthy outdoor activities are encouraged with a new grass pitch, a 1km fitness track around the school parameter, an amphitheatre for outdoor learning and socialising, and attractive hard and soft landscaping with new plants, shrubs and trees.
Douglas Brown
Headteacher, Boclair Academy
Project team
We worked closely with planning consultants, neighbours, and the school community in stakeholder consultation to communicate emerging design ideas, ensuring everyone was brought along on the project journey. These discussions, together with the strong vision of the council and the school, have successfully delivered a well loved facility.
Douglas Brown
Headteacher, Boclair Academy
