SCHOOLS & EDUCATION FACILITIES SUPPLEMENT NEW-BUILD ACADEMY


The project team for a new academy school installed an underground aquifer to store energy, as well as other low carbon innovations in a challenging urban environment. Andrew Brister finds out what lessons can be learned


CHELSEA S


WE ALL WANT TO GO TO


trikingly modern it may be, but the Chelsea Academy in west London is already a thing of the past. However, while ‘Free’ schools are flavour of


We had to address ventilation, overheating and acoustics on a very busy urban site. It was a challenge


the month under current Education Secretary Michael Gove, academies remain in his thinking under the latest funding plans. Chelsea Academy opened its doors as whole new school in September 2010, and so was one of the last traditionally procured projects under the Building Schools for the Future programme. This is a far cry from the contractor-led,


standardised and prefabricated schools that are expected to emerge under Gove’s new spending regime. This is a design-led one- off, dictated in large part by the restrictions of the site. Indeed, the site highlights how the Royal


Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is not only for the rich and famous. Chelsea


14 CIBSE Journal March 2012


Academy sits in the shadow of the redundant Lots Road Power Station and is located within 100 metres of an elevated section of a busy rail link to Clapham Junction and close to the London Heliport. Social housing is common in this area. The joint sponsors of the academy are the


London Diocesan Board for Schools (LDBS) and the Royal Borough. Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS) was chosen as architect for the project, the firm having worked with LDBS before on St Mary Magdalene Academy in Islington. Mott MacDonald Fulcrum was approached by FCBS to act as building services consultant. The team has certainly made the most


of a compact site. By featuring rooftops as amenity space and making use of basements, an 11,100 sq m school has been squeezed into the 5,500 sq m of available ground area. FCBS has opted for a traditional departmental


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