This project takes interest in the sublime, defined as the perception of danger from a place of safety.

The primary school acts as a safe environment through which the powerful industrial processes that support us can be viewed. This is conceived by integrating factories directly into the school, separated from the pupils by a thin, semi-permeable membrane. The school also investigates the sublime’s link to regional identity through its use of twin sites at either end of Northern England.

In the 20th century, industrial infrastructure was replaced in Northern England, destroying an old way of life based around factories, and separating the consumer from the means of production. This project acknowledges the transition from the industrial to post-industrial in England for a new generation of children.

Steiner schools were originally founded as a response to the industrial revolution and looked to reconnect with a way of life situated in the landscape sublime. In the post-industrial West, Steiner schools can reconnect children with both the landscape sublime and the industrial sublime.