Frederick Bremer School

The Design Quality Indicator (DQI) process highlighted specific requirements for this school, redesigned as part of Building Schools for the Future.

Frederick Bremer School in Waltham Forest was part of the first wave of Building Schools for the Future (BSF) along with two other local schools, Kelmscott and Walthamstow Girls.

Each school needed to articulate their unique circumstances and priorities at an early stage so that BSF bidders could respond with design solutions meeting their requirements.

A Design Quality Indicator (DQI) assessment was used to discover what was important to each individual school rather than producing a generic brief for all three. It was also used to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of three schemes and feed into the selection of the preferred bidder.

How the Design Quality Indicator (DQI) assessment helped

• helped consolidate a school specific brief that would feed into the development of sample schools by the preferred bidders
• allowed all stakeholders to really think through what they wanted from the design for the new school
• helped develop relationships between different stakeholders and allowed for an understanding of different viewpoints
• provided a baseline understanding of all stakeholder needs
• empowered end-user stakeholders and ensured ownership in the project from the outset.