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Designing schools in batches works when a project team standardises the parts that should repeat and deliberately adapts the parts that belong to each school. A 1 September 2016 practitioner account by Anthony Langan, AHR’s director and education sector lead, describes that approach across 12 Education Funding Agency schools: more than £100 million of work, 62,000 m², seven local authorities and a two-year delivery challenge. Langan reports that all 12 were delivered on time and on budget. Those outcomes are reported by the practitioner article, not independently audited results, so they are best read as a documented case rather than a universal promise.
What “designing schools in batches” means
Batch design is not the construction of one school copied 12 times. It is a coordinated programme in which a design team establishes reusable components, tests them on early schemes and then adjusts them to the brief, site and community requirements of each remaining school.
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The method has two simultaneous objectives:
- Repeat what benefits from repetition: structural grids, environmental strategies, service modules, envelope details, coordination rules and information requirements can be developed once and reused.
- Protect what must remain specific: accommodation schedules, site constraints, local-authority requirements, circulation, safeguarding arrangements and the educational brief still need a school-by-school response.
That distinction matters because excessive standardisation can produce an unsuitable building, while designing every school from scratch can duplicate coordination effort and make lessons from one site difficult to transfer to the next.
The UK case: 12 schools under one programme
Langan’s article in Building, published 1 September 2016, sets out the scale of the Education Funding Agency programme as follows:
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| Case characteristic | Figure reported by Langan | What the figure describes |
|---|---|---|
| Number of schools | 12 | The total programme covered by the design and delivery approach. |
| Programme value | More than £100 million | The value stated for the Education Funding Agency school programme. |
| Total floor area | 62,000 m² | The combined area of the 12 schools. |
| Local authorities | Seven | The geographic and administrative spread of the programme. |
| Stated challenge period | Two years | The delivery window framed in the practitioner account. |
| Secondary block typologies | Four | The standardised block types developed for the secondary schools. |
The article says AHR delivered all 12 schools on time and on budget. It does not provide an independent audit, a control group or a published benchmark showing how the programme would have performed without standardisation. Any claim about savings or typical performance should therefore be attributed to this case rather than generalised to every school portfolio.
How the secondary-school layouts combined commonality and choice
Four standardised block typologies
For the secondary schools, the team developed four standardised block typologies. Langan describes these as a two-storey environmental and structural solution. The point was not simply to repeat a façade: the typologies established a repeatable way to organise structure, environmental performance and accommodation while leaving room for each school’s own brief.
Using a small family of blocks can give a programme a shared design language. It can also let the team carry forward resolved details, coordination information and lessons from an earlier scheme. However, a typology is only useful when its limits are explicit. A block that works for one site may need a different orientation, entrance arrangement, fire strategy interface or connection to other accommodation on another site.
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A spine of common facilities
The standardised blocks connected to a spine containing common facilities. This created a repeatable organising principle while allowing the blocks to be arranged in response to the individual school. The spine can be understood as the programme’s stable piece of planning logic; the connections and surrounding site arrangement are where adaptation takes place.
For a client reviewing several schools, this distinction makes design decisions easier to compare. A change to the block can be considered as a family-wide change, while a change to the spine or its connections can be assessed as a school-specific response.
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How the primary-school approach differed
Two-storey organisation by key stage
The primary-school layouts were described separately from the secondary typologies. Langan reports two-storey layouts ordered by key stage. Organising accommodation in that way gives the educational brief a direct role in the building’s planning rather than forcing primary schools into the same block logic used for secondary schools.
Early Years units and rooflights
Early Years units were single storey and used rooflights for daylight. This is an example of a component being standardised for a particular educational need, not a blanket rule applied to every part of the programme. The unit’s scale and daylight strategy were treated as part of the Early Years response.
Halls with secure community access
Halls were centrally located and designed with secure community access. That arrangement addresses a practical operational question: how a school can share a major space without opening the whole teaching area to visitors. In a batch programme, the access principle can repeat, while the exact entrance, security line and relationship to the site must still be checked for each school.
BIM as a programme-wide coordination process
The account presents BIM as a collaborative process spanning the batch, not as a model created only for a sample school. Digital prototypes allowed the client and design team to inspect proposed changes across all 12 schools. That makes the model a decision tool for the programme as well as a production tool for an individual building.
Brief-to-design comparison
When the same information structure is maintained across multiple models, the client can compare the brief with the developing design in a consistent way. A room, area, circulation route or performance requirement can be checked against its counterpart on another school without relying on unrelated drawing conventions.
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Cost and risk management
Langan says the models supported cost and risk management. In practical terms, a repeatable component can be reviewed once for its likely cost, procurement implications and coordination risks, then checked for the differences introduced at each site. The model does not remove commercial or construction risk; it makes the assumptions and changes easier to identify before they become site issues.
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The digital prototypes were used for early checks against the facilities output specification, including ventilation and daylight. Early checking is valuable because a performance issue found while a layout is still flexible is generally easier to resolve than one discovered after details, procurement or construction have progressed. The article does not publish measured performance results for the schools, so the evidence supports the use of early checking, not a guaranteed performance outcome.
Federated models and clash detection
Coordinated federated models and regular clash detection formed part of the workflow. A federated model brings discipline or consultant models together so interfaces can be reviewed. Clash detection can identify geometric conflicts between structure, architecture and building services before installation, but it depends on model quality, agreed tolerances, timely updates and clear responsibility for resolving issues.
Repeatable systems that supported delivery
Langan attributes time and money savings to several connected measures:
- clash detection;
- model coordination;
- knowledge transferred from the sample schemes;
- repeatable or modular structural systems;
- repeatable envelope systems; and
- offsite modular mechanical and electrical systems.
These are the project team’s stated explanations for what helped. The article does not independently measure the contribution of each measure, so it would be inaccurate to present any one of them as a proven percentage saving or to promise that every batch will be faster or cheaper.
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The sequence is nevertheless instructive. A sample scheme can expose design and coordination problems. A repeatable system can then carry the resolved approach into later schools. Offsite mechanical and electrical modules may reduce the amount of site assembly, but their usefulness depends on transport, access, tolerances, procurement timing and the degree to which each school can accept the same module.
A practical batch-design workflow
The case can be translated into a repeatable management sequence. The exact contracts, standards and approval gateways will vary, but the decisions should be made in this order.
- Define the portfolio brief. Record the common output requirements, the differences between schools, site constraints, authority requirements and the information each decision-maker needs.
- Separate repeatable from site-specific elements. Identify candidate typologies, structural and environmental rules, envelope details, service modules and information standards. Mark items that must remain bespoke.
- Develop sample schemes. Use early schools to test the proposed blocks, interfaces and performance assumptions. Treat the sample as a learning platform, not as an automatic template.
- Set up the shared model environment. Agree model origins, coordinates, naming, revision control, exchange dates, responsibility matrices and the rules for federating discipline models.
- Check the brief and performance early. Compare accommodation and area requirements with the model, then review ventilation, daylight and other facilities-output requirements while changes are still affordable.
- Run regular coordination and clash reviews. Record each issue, assign an owner, set a resolution date and confirm that the fix has been incorporated in every affected school.
- Transfer knowledge deliberately. Capture decisions, approved details, unresolved risks and reasons for deviations so later teams inherit usable information rather than assumptions.
- Adapt each school before freezing the design. Test orientation, access, safeguarding, community use, local requirements and procurement constraints. Do not approve a repeated component merely because it appeared on the sample scheme.
- Coordinate manufacture and site delivery. For modular structure, envelope or services, verify interfaces, tolerances, logistics and installation sequencing against the specific school model.
- Close the learning loop. Feed construction observations and approved changes back into the remaining models, with version control so the programme does not split into incompatible variants.
Choosing the right balance between standardisation and tailoring
Two questions provide a useful decision framework for every component.
| Decision axis | Standardise more when… | Tailor more when… |
|---|---|---|
| Design component | The component has the same functional requirement, interfaces cleanly and can be manufactured or procured repeatedly. | Site orientation, educational use, safeguarding, planning conditions or community operation materially changes the requirement. |
| Digital coordination | Models share reliable data structures, coordinates, naming and revision rules, making cross-site comparison meaningful. | Different consultants, contracts or legacy information make a common model unreliable without additional checking. |
| Performance review | The same output requirement applies and the input assumptions are comparable. | Climate exposure, occupancy, orientation or local constraints change the performance calculation. |
| Procurement and manufacture | Volume, lead time and logistics support a repeatable module. | Transport, access, tolerances or a school-specific interface outweigh the benefit of repetition. |
This framework prevents a common error: treating standardisation as a target in itself. The target is a reliable outcome for every school, with repetition used where it improves coordination or delivery and adaptation used where it protects the brief.
What the case demonstrates—and what it does not
Evidence supported by the account
- A shared design system can coexist with separate school briefs.
- Batch BIM can help clients compare changes across sites and coordinate federated models.
- Early checks can include ventilation and daylight against the facilities output specification.
- Knowledge transfer, clash detection and repeatable or modular systems were identified by the project team as contributors to delivery.
- The practitioner article reports on-time and on-budget completion of all 12 schools.
Claims the account cannot establish
- It does not establish a typical percentage saving for batch design.
- It does not prove that standardisation always reduces cost or programme time.
- It does not independently validate the reported budget or schedule outcome.
- It does not show that the same four secondary typologies or primary arrangements suit every school portfolio.
- It does not publish measured ventilation, daylight or post-occupancy results for the schools.
Common failure modes and controls
Copying the sample without testing the site
Symptom: a later school inherits an orientation, entrance or circulation arrangement that conflicts with its site or brief. Control: require a documented deviation review for every school before the repeated design is approved.
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Federating models without information rules
Symptom: clashes are missed because files use different coordinates, naming or revision dates. Control: agree the model protocol and exchange schedule before detailed coordination begins.
Counting clashes instead of resolving risk
Symptom: teams close numerical clash targets while significant interfaces remain unresolved. Control: rank issues by safety, performance, programme and rework consequence, and record who accepted each residual risk.
Making a modular system too rigid
Symptom: a service or envelope module creates expensive adapters at a school-specific interface. Control: define allowable variation and check manufacture, transport and installation constraints with the design.
Failing to transfer decisions
Symptom: each site repeats an already-solved problem or adopts a superseded detail. Control: maintain a controlled library of approved details, decisions, exceptions and lessons from construction.
What clients and design teams should ask before starting a batch
- Which requirements genuinely repeat, and which only appear similar?
- Who owns the common typologies and who can approve a deviation?
- Are the models structured so a client can compare all schools without manual translation?
- What performance checks will be run, at which design stages, and against which output requirements?
- How will clashes, model revisions and unresolved risks be recorded?
- Can procurement, offsite manufacture and site logistics support the proposed modules?
- What evidence will distinguish a programme benefit from a one-off project outcome?
The 12-school account is most useful as a disciplined way of thinking about portfolios: establish a common platform, coordinate it digitally, learn from early schemes and keep a formal route for adaptation. Its reported result is encouraging, but the defensible lesson is the process and its controls—not a blanket promise that every batch will be delivered on time, on budget or with the same savings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was the 12-school programme independently audited?
The on-time and on-budget result is reported in Anthony Langan’s 1 September 2016 practitioner article in Building. The account supplied for this article does not identify an independent audit or benchmark.
Does batch design mean every school has the same layout?
No. The case combined four secondary block typologies and repeatable planning principles with adaptations for each school’s brief, site and operational requirements.
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The account describes digital prototypes spanning all 12 schools, brief-to-design comparison, cost and risk support, early ventilation and daylight checks, federated models and regular clash detection.
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