Nestled in the Wye Valley, near the Wales-England border, the Haberdashers’ Monmouth Schools at Monmouth have been providing exceptional teaching for more than 400 years.

This storied institution is undertaking a project that will unify two separately located single-sex campuses into mixed-gender Lower and Upper Schools. Civic Engineers is working with architects Levitt Bernstein to design three new projects as part of the school’s vision for their future.

A new Sixth Form Centre is located between a number of existing structures, unifying the campus and providing it with a single entrance and a welcoming new face. Taking its cues from hospitality design, an existing dining hall will be reclad, and extended with a steel frame and timber roof, to provide meals to 600 pupils and 100 staff in a cafe-style environment. The extension includes a sedum covered blue roof, with the existing building featuring new roof finishes and PV panels. An existing load bearing masonry building which houses three squash courts is to be refurbished as a dance studio.

Wales has implemented stringent new sustainable drainage standards, and Haberdashers’ Monmouth School is one of the first projects in the country to be subject to the more onerous legislation. Rather than see this as a constraint, our engineers have approached it as an opportunity.

Collaborating closely with the landscape architects, we have designed environmental features for the campus that employ sedum blue roofs, permeable paving, and raingardens that also serve as amenities for the students and teaching opportunities for environmental design.

The act of bringing the two single-gender schools together into a mixed campus creates a new identity for the school, positioning it for the next chapter in its history.

Andrew Ruck, director in our London studio, said, “we’re applying our technical and creative skills in helping the schools bring together their respective single sex offerings into a single co-ed day and boarding school for 3 to 18 year olds. The new facilities include a new Sixth Form Centre which will feature a sedum blue roof for SuDs — the conversion of the former squash courts into a new dance studio, and an overhaul of the dining hall —  bringing  amenity and diversity to the site. It’s been a pleasure to deliver new space that will enhance educational experiences for students.” [Video credit Levitt Bernstein].