June '09 News

UK government body The School Food Trust (chaired by Michelin-starred chef, writer and entrepreneur Prue Leith), commissioned SHH to work in close consultation with The Sorrell Foundation on two test projects to improve school dining areas.  Both schools - one a primary and one a secondary school, both in the Southampton Area - suffered from poor dining environments (either because of too many functions and clutter or poor layout) and the challenge to SHH was how to create the maximum change possible on extremely tight budgets. 

For The Cherbourg Primary School, SHH created a series of graphic and furniture interventions, which allowed a separate feel for each activity (dining, teaching, sport, storage), with improved lighting, acoustics and storage, nicer furniture, better queuing at lunchtimes and quicker service - as well as creating a fun sense of nature, colour and pattern.  The Applemore College secondary school dining area had much more complex issues, but a strong new graphic treatment has improved the space beyond measure, both functionally and aesthetically, with a 'streetwise', urban feel and new spill-out area furniture, made from belisha beacons set into screeded-off concrete stools.