Kildrum Primary School, Cumbernauld (Gillespie, Kidd and Coia)

Job files, images and drawings related to project

Kildrum Primary School was designed as a two stream primary school for 680 infant & primary pupils. The school is situated on the south east slope of Cumbernauld's 1959 limits. Construction began in the summer of 1959. The infant wing was ready for occupancy in the spring of 1961, and the remainder by the same summer.

The infant wing is a single storey building containing 4 classrooms, a medical inspection suite, staff rooms, stores and lavatories, the whole being planned around an internal courtyard in which there is a small pool, a flowering tree and several concrete benches.

The junior wing, to the west of the infant block, is the main school building and contains in addition to the 12 junior classrooms, the administration suite, assembly/dining hall, school meals kitchen, and has been planned to make the best use of the fairly steeply sloping site. The classrooms are planned around 2 staircases with a split level access to the main entrance hall, cloaks and lavatories. Again this building is planned around a courtyard with outside seating and play space for the children, and an impressive water tower.

The unusual appearance of the school is a result of the architects' desire to provide an intimate domestic environment satisfactory to both children and staff, while avoiding glare and excessive heat loss.

The material has been arranged using original Gillespie Kidd and Coia project reference codes.

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Catalogued by Tracy Wilkinson/Mark Tripney, GKC Project Archivist

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