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It is interesting that Oliver has chosen to bring Catmose Campus into the debate on the role of standardisation in schools design. Oliver clearly has very strong views about it, but it is a debate that we welcome. Our position as a practice is that standardisation, done properly, has a very important role to play in the future of our schools and can provide bespoke, high-quality and adaptable learning environments at significantly reduced cost. This will mean fewer of the flashy schools that became synonymous with BSF being built, but doesn’t mean that the learning environments of our young people have to suffer as a result. Despite being a BSF project, we believe that elements of Catmose Campus can be used as a basis for moving forward in this respect.

That said, we hope that Catmose Campus will be considered as a piece of architecture, independent of whatever political debates surround it. As Oliver alludes to, as a school and community building Catmose Campus is working very well, and both students and staff are extremely pleased with it. We are a little perplexed that he describes the building as “joyless”, after writing of the Hellerup-inspired central atrium space, “the students here seem to love it, eagerly crowding the steps at lunchtime.” But we guess the latter doesn’t quite fit with his dystopian vision of a grim, pre-fab future!

We are more positive about the future of schools design, and are happy for Catmose Campus to initiate a new dialogue on where the sector is headed. With regard to the building itself, we would invite anyone who is interested to take a look at the project pages on our website (http://bit.ly/hYUvZs) or visit the building itself to make up their own minds.