sections


Left_ Steel mesh canopy over reading terrace


diagram of open spaces


diagram of materials


language echoes the vernacular of office-design practice. The teaching wings are concrete-framed with open floor slabs to allow for maximum flexibility and their undersides are exposed to provide thermal mass. The air quality in the area is good, and the use of indented courtyards and atria has allowed for the implementation of a passive ventilation strategy throughout the building. Classrooms are clustered around the open shared spaces and courtyards, while the specialist facilities are similarly grouped around two-storey atria that provide light and ventilation, and offer opportunities to display art and other work. The two longitudinal circulation spines running between the teaching spaces are notably unlike corridors. Open to views of landscape at each end, they are lined by narrow bands of rooms overlooking the central courtyard that contain offices, stores and WCs, and are punctuated by long glazed stairs to provide views out across the shared courtyard to the opposite wing. The WCs, so often the site of bullying in traditional schools, have intentionally been kept small and dispersed; and the two wings are


linked by the hall, courtyard and a hanging first-floor bridge.


The primary school, which acts as the principal feeder to the academy, is similarly organised, with paired classrooms arranged on two levels. The school’s upper level is continuous with the ground floor of the academy and a generous gallery looks down into the main atrium/hall and into two narrower, top-lit double-height spaces, which provide break-out areas for cooking and information technology. The older children’s classrooms face east over one of the academy’s play areas, and to the west a tiny rotunda for reading is sheltered by a delicate galvanised-steel loggia. The loggia echoes, at a smaller scale, the canopy over the main entrance, and frames the primary playground located securely a storey below the academy’s outdoor spaces. To the outside world, the building


presents a sparsely perforated carapace of zinc tiles; within its precincts you discover extensive glazing, galvanised sunshades, and the timber-clad hall and bridge, all situated against white-rendered surfaces. Internally, the tone is set by white-painted plaster and joinery


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