NEWS
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© Kilian O Sullivan EDUCATION
Bell Phillips completes contemporary grammar school extension in Kent
Bell Phillips Architects have completed a major new extension to The Skinners’ School in Tunbridge Wells, Kent – the practice’s first completed education building.
Arranged over three floors, the 1,187 m² new building responds to expanding pupil numbers, housing a sixth form centre, English department and library. The design has been developed from a “careful analysis of adjacent Gothic revival buildings to produce an architecture that is both highly contemporary and respectful of its historic context at this prestigious school,” said the architects.
Established in 1887, the site evolved over time into a campus made up of a series of individual, un-linked buildings. A number of the later additions “failed to match the striking composition of the original pair,” said the architects. To reintroduce architectural integrity across the site and form a legible whole, Bell Phillips have added an element that “deftly responds to the existing context alongside
broader improvements to the site’s landscaping strategy.”
The ground floor layout helps to “tie the new building into the existing spatial arrangement and most importantly the school’s Upper Yard,” which is an “important social and recreational space.” An essential part of the brief was to ensure the Yard continued to function as a social hub, as such Bell Phillips’ new addition “reimagines it as both a point of arrival and place of transition.”
The ground floor is occupied by a sixth form centre which provides “variety and flexibility”: quieter, more intimate study spaces are kept separated from more informal study spaces – directly linked to a breakout area. The first floor contains the English department, and the library is located within the tall pitched roof volume on the top floor, lined with timber and forming a light and spacious learning environment. At all scales the facades “draw on motifs and architectural conventions
from the existing Victorian buildings to forge a contemporary architectural language and create a clear visual interdependence,” said the architects. The “dominance of vertical proportions and strongly articulated gable ends” reflects the approach on the Main School building. Details such as window jambs and soldier courses respond to the existing features.
The new building includes a “high- specification built envelope,” including solar control measures and good daylight infiltration to reduce reliance on artificial lighting. A high efficiency HVAC plant system exceeds Part L requirements and works in tandem with an array of roof mounted photovoltaics. Headmaster, Edward Wesson said: “The learning spaces create through their design an atmosphere, visual impact and sound quality that encourages calm academic purpose. In that sense, in a boys’ grammar school, it has the potential to be transformative.”
ADF MAY 2021
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
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