Lancing College

Our work with Lancing College, the co-educational boarding and day school for 13 to 18-year-olds, began with feasibility studies for boarding accommodation.

Following this, the college decided to take a step back and asked us to undertake a full masterplan of its campus. The site and wider estate cover some 550 acres of the South Downs National Park.

The purpose of a masterplan is to look at the whole operation and organisation of a school’s facilities. This is to be sure that all opportunities are optimised and that the right development happens in the right place at the right time.

Sometimes, past development may have been somewhat piecemeal, which can result in a lack of cohesion on the site, and opportunities being missed due to a lack of clear forward thinking.

This approach may resolve an immediate issue, but if a school evolves in this way (or has done so in the past), it will eventually cause issues which can impact at an ever-increasing scale the smooth running of the school.

As Lancing College were looking to increase enrolment numbers in the long term, they would therefore need additional teaching facilities as well as boarding.

By taking a step back and by developing a cohesive and strategic masterplan, we have helped to provide the college with a plan and a clear framework within which to proceed for the future.

Not only does a masterplan provide a strategic vision, but it can be key in supporting and explaining development proposals to the local planning authority and (in this case) the South Downs National Park Authority.

This matters because well-thought-out proposals which can be demonstrated to be part of a long-term strategy are more likely to find favour with the planners.

The Lancing College Master Plan is still under further development, with many exciting new opportunities on the table for the college’s future.