School expansion to two-form entry; new building to house classrooms, nursery, dining hall and support facilities. Demolition and replacement of a pre-existing community hall on a site adjacent to the School, in a conservation area

We were engaged by the London Borough of Lambeth, through their Primary capital Framework, to analyse and advise on expansion options. This resulted in developing detailed designs for a new building and refurbishments of the existing building. The new building should complement the original Victorian School building.

Our analysis demonstrated that the School required more land than what was available on the existing site. With the School, we were able to persuade the local authority to acquire the land of a derelict community hall adjacent to the School from a housing developer, whose plans for redevelopment were being resisted by the local authority.

Our design concept was to investigate and express the idea of how young children view the world and buildings in their immediate environment. Typically, children draw houses a square box with a pitched roof and square windows.  This simplistic interpretation of a house has inherent emotions attached, the image evoked feelings of safety and security, and we employed this concept at the heart of architecture. It was important for us that the children could identify with the appearance of this building and experience and feeling of safety.  We succeeded in maintaining the initial design concept whilst also blending in with this conservation area.

The new building provides a new hall for the School to use during the day and a community hall space out of school house.