Award-Winning Application of Technal's Revolutionary Low Rise Glazing System

One of the first applications of the innovative new low rise glazing system from Technal has won a string of awards for design and architecture.    

Forest Park School is a visionary new primary school in Hampshire for children with learning difficulties.  Designed by Hampshire County Council’s in-house architects and constructed by Morgan Sindall, the new building has created an inspirational child-centred facility which has now been acclaimed with a series of awards and accolades.

Forest Park School-Hampshire

The school, which features extensive use of the revolutionary MODAL façade system, has won a top award at the Solent Design Awards which recognise the best designed buildings in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Commenting at the awards ceremony, the judges praised the building as “a highly specialised environment that avoided any institutional feel…. creating a wonderful and uplifting school where architecture and landscaping coalesce beautifully. This is a terrific resolution to a complex brief where the attention to detail has been superb.”

The school has also received a Civic Trust Award and an RIBA award which was presented for the project’s ‘high architectural quality and contribution to the local environment’.

In announcing the awards, the RIBA judges said, “…a school cannot just be about facilities, it must engender a sense of wellbeing, even pride among pupils and staff.  The architects have created an extraordinary place in which pupils feel special… in which the children’s needs are primary to the design.”

The Forest Park scheme is a collection of low rise buildings interlinked by a series of canopies and arranged around a number of courtyards. The outer walls are constructed of brick with inner façades of dark timber and glass, and a combination of dual and mono-pitched zinc roofs.  The site’s landscaping was inspired by the heathland that characterises much of the New Forest National Park.

Technal’s MODAL low rise façade system was used extensively throughout, installed by glazing fabricator, Glassolutions Installation.

Finished in dark brown with contrasting bronze doors, MODAL is used as fixed light glazing and with FXi65 windows. Sound attenuated louvres provide additional natural ventilation, and the GXi sliding patio door, which is fully integrated with MODAL, was also specified, together with Technal’s CD commercial door.

MODAL is a rapid-build low rise façade system – and the first in the UK to offer integral opening vents.  It has an innovative modular design, which gives specifiers a much wider choice of configuration options.

The new school, which has been created following the amalgamation of two existing schools, provides accommodation for 72 children with special educational needs, aged between two and 11 years.  Facilities include a library, IT suite, hydrotherapy pool, hall, children’s kitchen for cookery activities, therapy room, office, dining room, soft play room, light room, specialist art room and extensive external play areas.

For further information about the MODAL rapid-build low rise façade system or to download a technical brochure, visit