Alkerden Education Campus
The Alkerden education campus will be one of the largest educational facilities ever to be built in Kent and will provide more than 2,200 places to nursery, primary and secondary school pupils on an 11.1 hectare site.
The scheme is placed within the Ebbsfleet Garden City, one of the most extensive development sites in the Thames Gateway, where 15,000 new homes are planned.
Ubu will be providing the landscape design for the project, working with architects Lee Evans Partnership on behalf of the developer and landowner, Henley Camland.
The project accommodates an eight-form-entry secondary school and a two-form entry primary school and nursery with a community sports centre and sports pitches, as well as play areas and car and cycle parking. The primary school on the Education Campus is expected to open a year later than the secondary school.
The new on-site secondary school will have space for 1,680 pupils, including a sixth form and a 25-place special resource provision for autistic pupils.
It will be accompanied by a primary school with room for 446 pupils and will also cater for early years and special educational needs.
Pupils will be able to take advantage of a wide range of sports facilities on offer, including a dual use sports centre with a four-court sports hall, dance studio, fitness suite and a café/bar.
There will also be sports pitches for football and cricket games, three tennis courts and a running track.
Careful consideration has been given to access and circulation routes across the site’s sloping landscape. Level changes, together with the use of various textures and materials, will help to engender a sense of place.
The new buildings and facilities will provide a truly first-class educational and social experience for the first generation of young people residing in the Garden City.
Aside from the advanced education provision, the community will be able to access the superb sporting facilities during out-of-school hours.
Easily accessible via Fastrack and the network of cycleways and footpaths nearby, it means all users will have access to excellent facilities supporting healthy and active lifestyles, as well as education.
Plans for 126 new homes at Ebbsfleet Green, an existing community in the Garden City have also been approved.
The one and two-bedroom homes will have 47 affordable homes including five wheelchair accessible properties.
The quarry and agricultural heritage of the site has directly influenced the design concept and material palette. The primary school will showcase brickwork reminiscent of the locally-distinctive reddish-brown quarry topsoil, with the secondary school brickwork adopting a paler grey tone, drawing upon the underlying chalk landscape for which the area was quarried.
The primary school will also feature natural ventilation cowls, which is just one of many sustainable credentials designed into the campus buildings.
Materials and construction methods have been selected to reduce the quantities of VOCs used in the construction process and energy-efficient fabrics and systems are being explored to minimise energy demands, thereby reducing the embedded and operational carbon footprint of the development.
A planning application for the development was submitted to the EDC – the planning authority for the Garden City – in December 2019 and was approved early 2021.
