The biology department is the latest phase of Canford School’s ten-year plan to diversify and strengthen its curriculum. The new, partly prefabricated building has replaced temporary classrooms with a stimulating new learning environment.

Set up in 1923 as a boarding and day co-ed independent school, Canford occupies a Grade I listed manor house and supporting buildings. The building adjacent to the new biology department is a nineteenth-century stable block and coach house.

The biology department forms a distinctive, high-quality extension to the science department, extending and improving the available teaching space.

Due to its location within a small courtyard between the stables and a 1960s classroom block, part of the building was manufactured off-site. It is a lightweight single-storey timber-framed pavillion, thus reducing its impact on the listed building and the surrounding green belt. The framing itself is emphasised through the use of glazing between the ‘goalpost’ frames, to improve daylighting and overall transparency. Biodiversity is enhanced with the addition of a green roof. This phase of construction also includes the redesign of the south entrance due to the changes in circulation post-redevelopment.