Case study · Multi-academy trust
A calming room for a multi-academy trust.
An anonymised look at how we designed and costed a low-arousal regulation room for a UK multi-academy trust. Not a production story. A design-thinking one, from the sensory goals that shaped the brief, through the layout decisions, to a supplier-neutral specification the trust owned and could build with anyone.
At a glance
- Setting
- A primary phase within a UK multi-academy trust (anonymised).
- The need
- A calming, low-arousal space pupils could use to regulate and return to learning.
- What we designed
- A zoned layout, photoreal renders, a walkthrough, and a costed, supplier-neutral specification.
The design thinking
A calming room only works when the thinking behind it is sound. Here is how the design came together, stage by stage.
Brief and sensory goals
The trust's inclusion lead came to us with a quiet, distracting space that the previous use had outgrown, and a clear ask: a calming room their pupils could regulate in before returning to class. We started with the children. Who would use the room, what triggers their dysregulation, and what does a good five minutes in there look like. From that we agreed the room's job: low arousal first, with a small, controllable layer of engagement the staff could turn up only when a pupil was ready.
Zoning and layout
Before any visual, we resolved the room as a plan. We zoned a clear, uncluttered entry so an anxious pupil is never overwhelmed at the door, a soft retreat zone against the calmest wall, and a separate active corner kept deliberately out of the immediate sightline. Sightlines for supervision, a wheelchair turning circle, and cleanable, robust surfaces drove the layout as much as the look. The decisions here are the ones that make a room get used rather than admired.
The render and 3D walkthrough
Only once the layout was right did we bring the room to life. Photoreal renders let the inclusion lead, the business manager and the trust board all see the same finished space and agree on it, and a walkthrough let them understand how the room feels as a pupil moves through it, not just how it reads on a plan. This is where a costed proposal stops being abstract and a panel can picture exactly what they are funding.
The render beside the realised room
The truest test of a design is how closely the built room matches the visual the trust signed off. On the left, the render we presented to the board. On the right, the realised room once the trust had built it from our specification, with the suppliers of their choice.
The costed specification and socket plan
Behind the visuals sat the document the trust actually bought from. Every element of the room was itemised with quantities and plain descriptions, so the finance and procurement teams could take the schedule to tender and compare like-for-like bids. Alongside it, a socket and services plan set out exactly where power and fixings needed to go, so the electrician had what they needed and the build was right the first time. We do not reproduce the full specification here, because it is the trust's own commercial document, but it is the piece that turns a nice render into something a board can fund and a contractor can build.
Why this specification was the trust's to keep
We design only. We sell no equipment. So the costed specification was the trust's to build with anyone.
Most of this market is built around selling equipment, with the design offered free as part of that. We work a little differently, and alongside it: design is our only product, so the specification is supplier-neutral and the trust's to fund, tender and build with whoever it chose. Funders also give more weight to a specification whose author does not also sell or install the room, so an independent one helps release a budget and stands up at tender.
The outcome
The point of an independent, costed design is that it travels. It gives a board the confidence to commit, gives a procurement team something concrete to tender, and gives a funder the evidence they need to release capital.
[Illustrative outcome] The kind of result this work is designed to produce: a board signs off the room from the render, the specification is taken to tender, and compliant bids come back below the budget set aside, with the difference redirected to the build. We will publish the trust's confirmed figures here once they are agreed for release.
Funding a room like this
A trust funding a calming room typically looks at High Needs and SEND capital through the local authority, which is capital only, and, for eligible academies in smaller trusts, voluntary-aided schools and sixth-form colleges, the Condition Improvement Fund, which is condition and expansion led and evidence heavy. Charitable grants from funders such as Wooden Spoon, the National Lottery Community Fund, BBC Children in Need and supermarket community funds can close a gap. Note that pupil premium is revenue funding and cannot be used to build a room. Every one of these routes asks for a credible, costed specification first, which is exactly what an independent design provides.
Design a calming room your trust can fund and build
Tell us about your setting and the pupils who will use the room. We will design it, visualise it and cost it in full, as a specification that is yours to take to tender.