Despite CoVid, work is progressing well at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys. This is the first phase of the school’s long-term masterplan, to rationalise, modernise and re-plan circulation and teaching spaces within the school’s estate. New library, teaching and Geology areas wrap around an existing play area to form a new social courtyard.

The long distance views from classrooms over the pitches and towards the hills are fantastic and part of our vision to improve mental health through daylight, colour and views.

We’re very excited to see the progress and look forward to seeing students in the building in the new academic year.

Work continues apace at Stockport Grammar School.

The scheme covers an existing external quad space, and creates a new Sixth Form social space. Alongside this the refurbishment to existing spaces will bring new life to the heart of the school.

This complex scheme at the heart of the historic school campus has been sensitively designed to deliver high quality new space for the 6^th Form. The main feature of the new quad, a barrel-vault roof, is overlooked by first floor classrooms and circulation spaces, and as such the materiality and aesthetic appearance has been meticulously designed.

This project, due for completion for the coming academic year, is one of a series of schemes that 10architect is involved with at Stockport Grammar School, reflecting our passion and commitment towards the school built on our long-term relationship with the client. 

We are excited to welcome a new member to the 10architect team. Heather Clifton has a wide variety of experience as an architect across different sectors and projects, primarily in the education sector.

Heather is enthusiastic about contributing to Manchester’s architecture community. As a participant in the RIBA mentoring scheme she provides experience and advice to second year students at Manchester School of Architecture. She also periodically takes part in guest reviews of Master’s students work at MSA.

Social responsibility is key to Heather’s design approach – matching 10architect’s core principle of social value though architecture. We are looking forward to developing upcoming projects with Heather’s insight contributing to the team.

A small yet important project that builds on the work we delivered last summer. Previous work has organised and improved the circulation patterns providing external seating under a new canopy with a suite of refurbished and remodelled classrooms.

Ultimately the wider masterplan looks to relocate and cluster core subject areas to improve subject adjacencies and cross curriculum learning.

As part of this, key connections and circulation is being improved, the centre price being a large central canopied area with stepped seating capable of taking several hundred students. This together with a new entrance canopy and landscaping is on site. This is a very exciting time of development for Holmes Chapel Comprehensive and we look forward to supporting the school as they transform the estate.

We were delighted to see Derian House featured on ITV and the BBC. This much deserved publicity for the children’s hospice celebrates their first ever ‘Outstanding’ CQC rating after their recently completed refurbishment.

10architect Healthcare is the newest facet of our architecture practice. Directed by Steve Wilson, we have decided to focus our innovation, experience and technology into healthcare design, expanding our repertoire and utilising Steve’s experience and contacts within the sector.

This exciting time means the forging of new partnerships, exploring and working at the forefront of cutting edge of healthcare design, as well as providing excellent facilities for our clients.

Through our understanding the complexity of healthcare operations, we can approach design with a deeper grasp of user requirements, resulting in architecture rooted in creative solutions and practical approach. This in turn contributes to our company goals of positive social legacy, contributing meaningful and lasting designs.

The new door sign is up!

Designed by our Part I, Maddie. She was encouraged to expand her graphic design skills and test different ideas whilst creating a colourful and welcoming sign for the new office.

At 10architect we pride ourselves on promoting new skills with our employees and pushing ourselves to step outside our comfort zones to create engaging and exciting designs.

As part of 10architect’s continued dedication to architectural education and professional development we are happy to announce the addition of Madeleine Ross to the team!

A recent graduate from Manchester School of Architecture, this is an excellent opportunity for her to gain practical design experience in an architectural practice. Throughout the year she will have valuable experience working within the different RIBA stages in a variety of projects, in order to expand her skill set. This training reflects 10architect’s ethos of positive social legacy, by contributing to a fulfilling architectural education and cultivating skills in future designers.

We are excited to announce the completion of our project at Derian House Children’s Hospice.

This project has involved the considerate renovation of a high-quality care facility, improving key spaces such as patient and family rooms, play areas, corridors, dining and reflection rooms. We were delighted to work alongside Derian House from initial concept to the finished project, using VR technology to test and develop the concept alongside the clients and building users.  

This sensitive project reflects the importance of social value we place in our work at 10architect, ensuring an engaging renovation that will improve the experiences of children, families and staff at Derian House.

We were delighted to be part of the celebrations for the Grand Saturday Opening of the new Veterinary Referral Hospital in Cheadle Hulme.

The state-of-the-art facility builds on our work with Vet Partners and shows how a commercial building can be successfully transformed into an efficient and functional hospital. Working closely with the clinical team in Virtual Reality from the start meant that the design could be tested and optimised, saving money and improving services for everyone.

10architect are extremely proud of our contribution, and the staff of Atlas House are clearly delighted with the completed project.

10architect is delighted to announce the addition of Steve Wilson to the 10architect team.

Steve’s extensive experience within healthcare architecture and his passion for delivering excellent service exemplify the values 10architect stand for. This exciting opportunity has allowed us to expand into healthcare, investing in new clients and relationships whilst broadening our pioneering design and use of Virtual Reality into a new sector.

Steves valuable addition to the team signifies a new phase of 10architect’s expanding architectural practise, and we are all looking forward to this exciting new chapter of our journey.  

We have been working with Derian House for 8 months now to develop a comprehensive refurbishment of the hospice – their first full refurb since they opened their doors 25 years ago.

We now have a contractor on board and are looking forward to seeing the transformation! Through our consultation with parents, staff and children, we have developed a series of emotionally sensitive designs for each area and age group, all within the Derian family culture.

An amazing charity – please support them if you can!!!

Well underway with the designs for the new £10M Construction Skills Centre, it was an ideal opportunity to engage with the students and staff to give them a preview of the new facilities – 18 months before they are actually built.

We try to use the VR for every stage of our work, and with the students it was an ideal way to test ideas and have a sense check on the designs as part of a design review process. Through understanding the spaces, everyone can engage and feedback details which are invaluable in making the project bespoke and fit for purpose – saving time, money and disappointment down the line.

If you would like to know more about our VR, please let us know and we would be delighted to demonstrate how we can make it work for you.

Once again, we were delighted to support Stockport Grammar School careers fair. Showcasing everything that the architectural profession has to offer, we spent the evening answering questions, talking to students and parents, reassuring them that they did not have to do just maths, physics and art, and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening along the way.

Some great visuals from Sam really helped to explain the route to becoming an architect, and with Pat’s persuasive Irish charm, we suspect there may be a few more budding architects in the making.

Every year, we try and take a student for work experience, but with limited availability, places are snapped up six months in advance. If you’re interested, please drop us a line.

So the first phase of works is now complete and students are in, enjoying the new dining area that have been created on the mezzanine area, as well as new classrooms, an extension to the main theatre space and creation of 2 new science laboratories.

This complex £750,000 summer project was developed to provide an intelligent and responsive approach to growing the school provision rapidly prior to the building of a new science and teaching block.

Taking an innovative approach and testing earlier feasibilities, we were able to provide new space with minimal disruption to the original PFI school – much to the delight of everyone involved.

We feel passionately about improving the way people use and feel about the buildings we create. As architects we have a rare and unique opportunity to improve people’s lives through our work.

Recently, we were given the opportunity to speak about some of our research work and the impact it can have on people’s mental health. Taking one very small area, we reflected on the impact of light, colour and view on people’s perceptions and state of mind.

With a short exploration of circadian rhythms and the impact of positive sleep patterns we went on to discuss how architects can use colour and light to the benefit of students in education establishments. The issues around mental health are becoming increasingly understood and discussed openly and we have a role to play in improving health and well-being.

We further explored the role of view and the benefits can have on people state of mind. In the time we had we could only scratch the surface of this extremely important subject.

Many thanks to the Forum for the Built Environment and my fellow panelists..

It is fair to say, that the previous changing rooms were in desperate need of a complete overhaul. After many years of use catering for all levels of school and visiting teams alike, the changing facilities were looking and smelling pretty unpleasant.

Following a successful funding application, the changing areas were gutted and new facilities with proper ventilation, heating and drainage were installed. The new facilities have transformed how the school can use the spaces providing control and flexibility as well as a place where boys may actually feel like having a shower.

We were invited by St James’ to develop some striking and innovative ideas on the back of our previous roles on the award-winning black box theatre in Kendal. The brief was to tie in with the existing church hall and provide flexible and innovative space alongside the church whilst resolving some of the circulation and acoustic issues within the hall.

Using 3D models, we developed an exciting and innovative concept connecting the hall to the old churchyard through a series of laminated timber frames that twisted as they sank into the ground connecting the earth to the sky, both physically and metaphorically.

VR is quickly sweeping the construction industry by storm. Its implementation within a select few areas has resulted in a wide spread adoption that is changing the face of construction for the better, improving efficiencies, reducing programme times and enabling the client to interact with the design in a way that has not been available previously.

At 10architect we use VR within almost all of our projects. Its integration within the practice is paramount to our vision for the office, and how we believe all members of the design team can collaborate better in order to produce a better end product for the client.

To be completely immersed within the 3D environment enables the user to understand space, make informed design decisions and, most importantly, allows every member of the team to understand, and resolve issues, immediately as they are flagged up through the VR interaction.

Located in Wakefield, the existing green pitches have suffered for many years from contamination and glass debris across the site. Working alongside Wakefield college, we have developed a strategy to redevelop on a series of artificial pitches with adjacent sports Hall to provide a range of community and education opportunities on the currently under-utilised green open space.

Working with the latest Sport England guidance and standardised designs, these facilities will ensure club level training in tournament opportunities for this area of Wakefield.

We were invited on the back of our virtual reality work to develop designs for the space planning and office design for solicitors Moore and Smalley.

These renderings, straight from our Revit models, show the quality levels that we operate at when designing buildings for viewing within a VR environment. Demonstrating significant efficiencies and improvements in space utilisation, the designs were crucial to the partners in the decision-making and capital expenditure for the business.

Responding to a call for help in a local newspaper, we were delighted to get involved with the Glossop Scouts. As part of our charitable work, we were able to help prepare ideas for their funding bid, and use it as an excuse to go for a mountain bike in the hills!!

Back to school with the chalk too!!!