This paper focuses upon a major, ‘flagship’ programme of investment in school building
(re)development instigated by the UK New Labour Government between 2004 and 2010:
Building Schools for the Future (BSF). Drawing upon empirical material from research in
two schools which were undergoing refurbishment in this policy context, we explore how
BSF was manifest, in practice, as an event characterised by the promise of transformation.
We focus upon two particular school buildings, highlighting how this promise came to be
attached, not unproblematically, to the redesign of diverse material school spaces, be they
small and ‘functional’ (e.g. corridors) or high-profile and ‘inspirational’ (e.g.
flagship atria)