Scottish practices Loader Monteith and Studio SJM have completed The Harmeny Learning Hub outside Edinburgh, which is clad in larch to blend in with its woodland surroundings.
The teaching space is located on the 35-acre estate of the charity Harmeny Education Trust, which provides specialist education for children who have experienced severe trauma.
Loader Monteith and Studio SJM won a competition to design it with their proposal to "embrace the students and the landscape" with a low-slung, L-shaped building that hugs the site's trees.
Loader Monteith and Studio SJM have completed a learning centre in Scotland
"Sited between two Category-A listed buildings and within a dense, mature woodland, the learning centre is rooted firmly in the principle of wellbeing," explained the studios. "At the very core of the project is a desire to provide a safe place in which the children can explore, discover and reflect on their experiences in order to heal and develop skills that will support them into and throughout their adult life."
The Harmeny Learning Hub comprises two buildings set atop a paved patio. To the north, the classrooms, meditation spaces and two art workshops are housed in the main timber-framed, larch-clad structure that will silver over time to "camouflage" with the trees.
The learning hub comprises two buildings
Perpendicular to this is a slightly smaller brick-clad volume, containing further teaching spaces and workshops alon...