Hornsby House School
Subscribe now to instantly view this image
Subscribe to the Architects’ Journal (AJ) for instant access to the AJ Buildings Library, an online database of nearly 2,000 exemplar buildings in photographs, plans, elevations and details.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
The bluff southerly ground floor faces onto Ravenslea Road, where the visitor entrance is situated; pupils enter on Hearnville Road
Ian Goodrick Download Original
New classroom building for Hornsby House School in Balham, south-west London, that makes use of ventilating wind-catchers along a barrel-vaulted roof
A new classroom building along the southern site edge has been built following the demolition of an earlier building.
The south-side ground floor is cut off from views and so is largely lined with stores and WCs. The main office spaces and library open to the north on to the playground. A music room makes use of this southerly enclosure and double walls for acoustic protection. Practice rooms are accessed from the lobby, which also assists acoustic separation.
On the first floor the feel changes, the space is accommodated within a 9m span barrel-vaulted roof, with its springing points aligning with adjacent eaves of the Victorian school buildings.
This first floor is fully glazed and shaded at either end. Its two central classrooms borrow light from a northern fully glazed gallery, supplemented by sun pipes at the ridge. Also at the ridge of each first-floor room are monodraught windcatchers, internally subdivided both to admit wind for ventilation and to facilitate passive stack ventilation.
The open areas of the windcatchers are controlled automatically via dampers, based on temperature and CO2 sensing.
Data
- Begun: Dec 2002
- Completed: Sep 2003
- Floor area: 380m2
- Sector: Education
- Total cost: £940,772
- Procurement: JCT IFC 98 form and two-stage competitive tendering
- Address: Hornsby House School, Hearnville Road, London, SW12 8RS, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Dimwiddie MacLaren Architects
- Client: Hornsby House Educational Trust
- Quantity surveyor: Faithful
- Structural engineer: Terrell International
- Services engineer: Roberts & Partners Consulting
- Project manager: Rose Projects Services
- Acoustic consultant: Bickerdike Allen
- Main contractor: Durkan Pudelek
Suppliers
- Mechanical and Electrical Engineer: Mechanical Services
- Metal roof finishes: NDM
- Roof ventilators: Monodraught
- Steel frame: Four Bay Structures
AJBL Sponsor
Thrislington Cubicles
Builders of the worlds best toilet cubicles, vanity units, lockers and panels at our factory in the United Kingdom since the 1960s