Holland Park

Given the school’s location within a Conservation Area and next to the Royal Borough’s largest park, it was essential to create a sympathetic relationship with nearby homes and elevate the connection to the park. The design is respectful to the local Victorian style streetscape, whilst addressing the site requirements.

The new building has a north-south orientation and its positioning helps to order the site, thus creating two distinct open spaces. The harder eastern edge is more public facing and houses the relocated main entrance; while the open, western side of the site locates the sports pitches, creating a buffer zone and helping to reduce the visual impact of the school.

Natural daylight is maximised by the creation of an atrium by dividing the building into two blocks, one housing specialist teaching space and the other traditional. The atrium is simultaneously a divisive and unifying space, clearly distinguishing the spaces and providing an instinctive understanding of the hierarchy and navigation of the building.

Functionality of the space is reflected in the treatment of the external facade. Built up in four main layers; the blocks are characterised by the facade treatment where one is restrained and formal the other is dynamic.

The dynamic western facade has fins curved in profile and clad in an alternating finish of bronze, copper and brass panels, which will gently settle in with time. We calculated the size and profile of the fins to provide maximum protection from solar gain and ensuring that the heat load on the facade was evenly distributed.

The building can be considered as three distinct elements; firstly the large basement extends over the entire footprint of the building and accommodates the sports hall and swimming pool, plus the kitchen and dining areas.

The above ground elements are then split into the two blocks; the regular teaching spaces are constructed using in-situ columns and flat slab construction. They also utilise a single-sided, natural ventilation system. To the west a dramatic steel A-frame superstructure defines the atrium and creates the large, specialist teaching and assembly rooms. Natural cross ventilation for the rooms, with the air discharged at the top of the building contributes to the 'stack effect' in the atrium.