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BUILDING PROJECTS
CITY OF LONDON FREEMEN’S SCHOOL POOL ASHTEAD, SURREY
Swimming among the timbers
A competition-level swimming pool has been constructed at a Surrey school, integrating a high level of quality in the design of its timber elements while embracing ancient woodland surroundings. Adam Cossey from the project’s architects Hawkins\Brown tells Jack Wooler how it was achieved
All photographs © Jack Hobhouse
he new pool for City of London Freemen’s School, in Ashtead, Surrey, uses state-of-the-art timber construction and offsite fabrication methods to create a sustainable building that sits gently within its context. Designed by architects Hawkins\Brown, the 25 metre, six-lane competition-standard pool includes a multipurpose teaching and events space, as well as a panoramic view connecting the users with the surrounding woodland. Freemen’s School is a co-educational private school for day and boarding pupils, situated in Ashtead Park. Founded in 1854 in Brixton by the Corporation of London, its original purpose was to educate orphans of the ‘Freemen of the City.’ Having moved to Ashtead in 1926, the school is now set in 57 acres of parkland in the heart of Surrey. As part of a masterplan which included the renovation of several buildings across the school, the architects have created a new facility that blends well with this historic property, matching the site’s educational prestige and natural beauty. Mole Valley District Council granted outline planning permission for the masterplan in 2011. The new pool was a key part of the application, replacing its former iteration. Although originally planned for a later phase, priorities shifted when the old pool was destroyed by a fire in 2014.
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The architects utilised innovative offsite fabrication techniques to create the new building’s timber frame. The material palette complements the external setting – the building wrapped in zinc, creating a striking environment internally and externally for users and spectators alike.
New beginnings
Hawkins\Brown architects were appointed in 2011 to undertake the masterplan for the school. Phase one was the design and delivery of the new music block and boarding accommodation, which was completed in 2014.
The swimming pool marks the second
phase, and further phases move onto the large, Grade II listed main house, a new playground, and enhancements to the landscaping of the school grounds. This was not always the plan, however,
as Adam Cossey, partner at the firm, explains: “The masterplan originally had four phases; the boarding accommodation and music school was to be phase one, the main house and dining area phase two, three was going to be the provision of an energy centre and a swimming pool, and phase four was going to be landscaping for the entire campus.” He continues: “However, the fire in their existing pool area, which was very close to the main house, catalysed the school to move on with the development of the
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