A SCHOOL building in Blandford is one of 17 post-modern buildings across the country to be given protected status.

The newly-listed Gough Building at Bryanston School was completed in 1988. It features columns modelled to look like giant screws that reflect its original use as the craft, design and technology building.

The Grade II listed building is set in the grounds of the school’s Grade I listed country house.

The Gough Building was listed by the Culture Department on the advice of heritage body Historic England to stem losses of architecture in the post-modern style.

Describing the reason for its listed status, Historic England said: “It is a sensitive yet witty contextual response to Norman Shaw’s Grade I listed Byranston School, and is indicative of an English contribution to post-modern architecture.”

The post-modern style, which is closely associated with the economic boom of the 1980s, brought "fun and colour" and "glamour" to Britain's streets, experts said, with bright colours, striking shapes and geometric patterns.

Though the style is an important strand of late 20th century architecture, post-modern buildings can be vulnerable to change and loss, which is why 17 buildings have been selected for listing, Historic England said.

Other newly listed buildings include Cambridge Judge Business School, which transforms a mid-18th century hospital building, and the Truro Crown Courts in Cornwall, designed by the same architects as the Tate Gallery, St Ives, and the striking Thematic House in Kensington and Chelsea, whose rooms relate to the seasons and the passage of the sun and the moon.