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Primary Space - Dalry Primary School, North Ayrshire, Scotland

Fact Sheet

Title of Project - Primary Space – Dalry Primary School

Artist(s) – Bruce McLean, working with William McLean (architect) and Mel Gooding (writer).  Final project also incorporated artworks by Gary Woodley, Ichia Wu, Peter Gannon, Ed Allington, John Aiken, John Hilliard

Commissioner – North Ayrshire Council Educational Services (Head of Service Jim Leckie)

Commenced – 1998

Completed – August 2007

Location – Dalry, North Ayrshire, Scotland

Scope – Primary School for 444 pupils (4608 sqm), plus nursery accommodation (908sqm), new building and grounds, including 14 classrooms, library, IT suite and sports hall.

Materials – Integrated design of school building including on exterior - insulated metal panels, render, roughcast glazed brick, facing brick, metallic gold insulated panels with cedar lining. The roof includes a large painted steel sculptural tree. Interior - internal walls predominately stud partitions finished in a variety of materials plus integrated artworks acting as walls and room dividers, including text in glass and laminated vinyl, wall paintings of quotations, signs and equations, wooden wall sized abacus and “tuned” wall, “The Brain” IT room with inflatable fabric walls. 

Budget  - Total project value £10.4 million, including “art” budget of £160,000 (much of the artist’s work was part of the structural building budget).

Funding sources – North Ayrshire Council, Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund

Summary Artists’ Brief - N/A – Artist-initiated project, worked as integral part of design team to create school with a number of basic requirements (7 classrooms, toilets, canteed, gym, IT suite, library etc) but  no official brief to create any specific artwork.

Project Management – Linda Mallet, Tom Littlewood, IPA (now Ginkgo Projects)

Other Professionals – David Watts, Architect, North Ayrshire Council.

Main Contractor - McTaggart Construction;

Structural Engineers - Carl Bro; Service Engineers - Pick Everard

Artworks fabrication - McEvoy Engineering, Perlam, Inflate Products, Piers-Rogers (Electronics), Van Der Graaf, Autograph Signs, PolyComp, Rankins

Contact for further information

Linda Mallet, Ginkgo Projects  - [email protected]

David Watts, North Ayrshire Council – [email protected]

Primary Space Website - www.primaryspace.net

Ginkgo projects – www.ginkgoprojects.co.uk

North Ayrshire Council – www.northayrshire.gov.uk

Articles and Case Studies

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/5/7/41536439.pdf

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/920/0066325.pdf

http://www.scottisharts.org.uk/1/artsinscotland/infrastructure/projects/archive/dalryprimaryschool.aspx

http://www.architecturescotland.co.uk/features/132/Experimentation.html

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=2483315