Evelyn Grace Academy
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Edmund Sumner (website) Download Original
Secondary school for 1200 pupils split into four smaller 'schools-within-schools', which share communal areas
The brief focused on aspiration and integration with the community, encouraging students to achieve high standards. These aims are pursued through a vertical organisation comprising four units of around 300 pupils, known as ‘schools-within-schools’ which eases transition between academic years and maintains pupil/teacher relationships.
The layout consists of 18m wide floor plates with parallel walls, providing flexibility and adaptability. Facilities, including the library, sports hall, workshops and performance rooms, which are located in a ground floor podium are shared by all schools. A central common area is available to the local community and each school has a large ‘hub’ space at its junction with this area.
Visitors enter through a central foyer but each school has its own external entrance. Corridors are generous at 3m wide and most rooms are 50 per cent glazed, providing high daylight levels.
The project was publicly funded which meant it was difficult to justify expensive details such as curved frames and glass for the windows, design quality has been attained by the use of geometry and a constrained palette of materials.
Data
- Begun: Jan 2009
- Completed: Jul 2010
- Floor area: 10,745m2
- Sector: Education
- Total cost: £36.5M
- Funding: Public
- Procurement: JCT Standard Design and Build Contract, 2005 Edition
- CO2 Emissions: 27.2kg/m2/year
- Address: 255 Shakespeare Road, Brixton, London, SE24 OQN , United Kingdom
Professional Team
- Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
- Project architects: Lars Teichmann, Matthew Hardcastle
- Client: ARK Education
- Project manager: Capita Symonds Architecture
- Structural engineer: Arup
- Acoustics: Sandy Brown Associates
- Landscape consultant: Gross Max
- Main contractor: Mace Plus
- Services engineer: Arup
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