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dRMM has undertaken extensive consultation, site appraisals and concept designs as the first steps on a journey exploring how the 185-year-old Academy could develop an exemplar of deaf education to replace its outdated 1960’s accommodation. The focus has been on what’s best for profoundly deaf children and young people, in spaces appropriate to communication through British Sign Language as well as English. On the urban scale the Academy redefines itself, creating a critical mass for Deaf learning, living and culture. Reverse inclusion is fostered through the provision of a ‘Deaf High Street’, which includes community facilities for exchange with the larger hearing community.
The Academy building manifests itself as a learning journey of distinct steps, with everyone under a single climatic roof. A 120-bed student housing building on the other side of the ‘Learning Campus’ provides a distinct domestic environment that redefines the terrace typology. Internally the spaces will be informed by, for example, dRMM’s early win ‘sensory learning pod’, a stimulus environment which prioritises the senses, and particularly visual connectivity.
The project recently received funding from the Technology Strategy Board to develop the envelope and environmental strategy in response to the demands of climate change and carbon reduction. A concept first tabled with dRMM’s government research project, the ‘Dura’, the project gives the Academy an opportunity to develop the Deaf vision of a new learning environment.
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