Wernick Buildings - Building from a child’s perspective

When your service users are predominantly children it seems only sensible that the building in which they may spend much of their day should be designed with them in mind. This was the focus of Brenda Birch’s comments about the new Wernick modular building she manages in Walsall. The Leighswood Children’s Centre has, among many other features normally associated with a nursery, reduced ceiling heights, level access between, and similar internal design features to the adjacent primary school. These characteristics have been incorporated into the new building said Brenda, “So that we are creating a warm, welcoming venue that allows our children to move comfortably from the Centre to the primary department of the school. We also want their parents to feel confident and happy coming into the centre to access advice, information and support”.
Other features incorporated into the design include environmental considerations such as a shallow angle mono-pitched roof concealing three solar panels producing hot water for the centre.
The centre can provide care for 48 children between three and eleven years of age in ‘wrap-around’ provision between 8.00 am and 6.00 pm through the week. During this time the children are offered a healthy meal at breakfast and tea times. They bring their own packed meals for lunchtime. The centre currently supports 70 children at various times during any week from 40 local working families. The support to the local community extends to offering courses in parenting skills, food preparation, pre and anti-natal care and job centre advice. These services are soon to be offered on an ‘outreach’ basis through mobile support workers in the community who will be based at the Children’s Centre.
Which key factors helped Carl Britton, the Children’s Centres & Extended Schools’ Development Manager for Education Walsall, to go for a design from Neath Abbey based modular building specialists Wernick Buildings? “I have to create the best possible environment for our service users,” stated Carl, “most of who are of a very young age. The development of these facilities is always required within very tight deadlines and I have found that modular construction gives us this quality and flexibility, as well as the opportunity to satisfy environmental issues in terms of sustainability. Modular building has improved dramatically in the last ten years”.
“As far as the Leighswood project was concerned”, continued Carl, “modular build gave me the time and cost factors that I required, as well as the flexibility to change the design of the building’s interior even as the project was being prepared in the factory. The fact that Wernick have a local office here in Walsall also helped tremendously in this respect. The speed at which the centre was erected was outstanding and presented the minimum disruption to the adjacent primary school”.

Email: jeff.bownds@wernick.co.uk