HERITAGE & HISTORIC (INCLUDING ADAPTIVE RE-USE) SUPPLEMENT
BUILDING PROJECTS
KINGSTON ACADEMY LONDON
Old school meets new school
A historic school in Kingston upon Thames has added a contemporary extension providing new functions on a constricted site. Jack Wooler speaks to Viola Maffessanti and Steve Westcott, associates at project architects astudio, on how they achieved this
he £15m Kingston Academy ‘regeneration’ and extension project has been completed – the astudio- designed project intended to both enhance a historic building it also occupies, while expanding its function through new and flexible spaces.
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Though contrasting with the 1880-build brick building (arranged around a quadrangle and formerly the Tiffin Girls School), the extension takes influence from its existing counterpart and the local vernacular. Its red and brick-hued external panels in particular are designed to reflect the surrounding buildings. Besides its bright, patchwork panels that display a gradient from red to white, the most notable visual feature on the approach to the finished Academy’s facade is the extensive glazing incorporated. This provides a significant level of daylighting, and allows for long sight lines across the school, helping to illuminate and connect the flexible spaces the architects have created.
These were among the school’s key goals – with astudio working closely with the client to ensure that these aims were delivered in what was a constricted site.
A viable project
Having worked in the area previously on schools in the Kingston and Richmond area, astudio successfully won a tender by developer Willmott Dixon, and began working with them and the client (the school and its trust) to make the project viable. Steve Westcott, associate at astudio, says that when they joined the project,
“Willmott Dixon had got to a point where they couldn't make the numbers stack up – it was quite an odd site.” Viola Maffessanti, fellow associate at the practice, tells me that “approaching the existing building, the area felt quite abandoned – it was mainly car parking, and not particularly interesting. One of the first challenges that the architects spotted here besides the financial issues was the size of the site, in relation to the client’s goals. As Steve puts it: “We were looking at 1,200 pupils on site, which presented constraints in terms of the space available – it felt a bit oppressive.” He continues: “There was also a public route through the school that people didn’t like to use – we had to incorporate reviving this into the design as well.”
Another of the main challenges presented to the architects at this stage was that the school would be active throughout the planned works. Viola comments: “It was certainly a challenge to build it in relation to the existing structure, because in the end it had to be one school, but at the same time create opportunities for new activities that the previous space couldn't achieve.” “Really,” she says however, “the main challenges were opportunities – and the opportunity presented to us was to create an educational hub.”
An educational hub The creation of the ‘hub’ was necessitated by access to the school being “quite demanding,” and as such the creation of a
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The extensive glazing provides a significant level of daylighting and allows for long sight lines
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