Practice makes perfect and never more so than at the Lanterns Children's Centre in Winchester, where the design team did seven feasibility studies on sites around the city before finding the right location.
The continual honing of ideas produced a stunning building which not only featured as a case study in Sure Start's early years design guide before the foundations had been laid, but also won the prestigious Partners in Excellence: Building for Sure Start award.
'I love this building,' says head of centre Olivia Peak. 'We were very conscious that we wanted the building to still look good in 30 to 50 years'
time.'
Inclusion is at the heart of the design by Colin Jackson, senior architect for Hampshire County Council. Half of the children attending the Lanterns nursery school have special needs.
The reception, for example, draws in the child: there is a long fish tank at toddler height, with a comfy seat in a recess on the opposite wall. The child then goes through reception into the outdoor area to reach the classrooms via the veranda.
'My mantra is: for every design area there have to be three good reasons,'
says Mr Jackson. 'The reasons for the canopied terrace/veranda are that it brings the children into the garden as their first experience of the day; their coats are kept by the doors for indoor/outdoor flow of traffic; and it is convenient for parents with buggies.
'The veranda canopy is deep enough to keep off driving rain; the height is right so the low winter sun gets into the classroom and it blocks off the full summer sun. The doors and windows fold back to let the outside in during the summer.
'I looked at old photos of the Macmillan kindergarten and wanted to replicate that simplicity,' says Mr Jackson. 'Designing a 1,000m2 building with a feel of simplicity was quite a challenge.
'I read about Reggio Emilia in Italy and there was a description of the design as being one of overall softness. For every choice I made I would ask, "Does it contribute to the overall softness of the place?"
'The colour scheme is soft, the choice of materials is soft, the wood is cedar, which has a softness to touch and a scent. Acoustically it is soft.
We have used very absorbent ceiling tiles. There is a softness of light. In each room there is not just one source of natural light. This means it is a multi-sensory environment through colour, scent, texture, sounds and light.'
The centre takes its name from the four distinctive lanterns running down the roof of the classroom block, which provide light and ventilation.
'Because it took such a long time, Colin meticulously planned every room in this building,' says Ms Peak. 'We were able to involve groups of staff looking at each area. For example, when we were planning the toilets, we got two or three staff to talk though what we needed to have and how they work when changing nappies.'
Mr Jackson says, 'When we were designing it, I cut out coloured-coded blocks on foam board to represent the rooms, so people could juggle them around to come up with the best order for the rooms. If one person is doing the writing or the drawing, he who holds the pen has the power. This way everyone could contribute.
'When we visited other nurseries, I would sit on the floor to see what it was like from the child's point of view and realised that quite often the children could not see out of the windows.
'I did not want to design windows down to the ground but wanted to have that traditional feel of the window sill. I made them wide inside and with wide ledges outside so adults can perch on the ledge or the children can come and work on the window ledges.'
The building has a host of child-friendly features:
* Long handles on the doors from the classrooms to the outdoor area so the children can open them
* Under-floor heating and no radiators
* Glass bricks set low in the walls of the softball play room
* Tables along the low windows so children can look out.
There are also features to facilitate the staff's work. For example, there are quiet rooms between the inter-connecting classrooms where staff can take children for one-to-one work free from distraction.
'I want the outdoors to be as much of a learning environment as the indoors,' says Ms Peak. And again inclusion is the theme.
There is a mound with a wide path, and rope handrail leading to a double-width slide a child can go down with an adult. There is also a switch-back trike course with road markings and a ride-in garage with parking spaces so children can put their trikes away, a pond with a dipping deck and a barrel as a den where the pond can be viewed.
There is also a sense of inclusion with the centre's neighbourhood. The gable pitch is copied from the houses opposite and the bricks and clay tiles were chosen to fit in with surrounding houses.
Extended services
The nursery school has 110 part-time places, 50 of which are for children with special needs. It offers 24 extended day places, a holiday play scheme and lunch club.
Its range of extended services aim to support children with profound and multiple difficulties and their families:
* Early Start, a group for SEN children from three months, provides a support network for families, and physiotherapists help develop the children's movement
* Smart Start, staffed by occupational, speech and language therapists, is a stepping stone to nursery; there are two motor skills sessions a week
* Portage
* A monthly paediatrician-led clinic so parents and children do not have to attend hospital
* SPLAT - Stay, Play and Learn All Together, family learning programme based on the PEEP (Peers Early Education Partnership) model developed in Oxford
* Parenting courses: Confident Kids - Confident Parents; Family Nurturing; Special Parents-Special Kids
* A support group for parents with children with social communication difficulties, held twice a term on Saturdays so fathers can attend
* Outreach projects offering SEN support to local pre-schools and reception classes
* Courses and classes: baby massage, aromatherapy, infant yoga
* A post-natal depression group
* Home Start Winchester runs its training courses from the centre
* The local NCMA co-ordinator works there every Friday