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feature
st raphael’s health & wellbeing centre
into a coherent ensemble, creating the sense of a walled town set against the landscape. The building’s form is inspired by Renaissance fortifications and medieval monasteries’. To the north, a long limestone wall establishes a defined edge and forms a new gateway to the school. To the south, a new planted courtyard is shaped by a cloister-like glazed corridor and a deep, canopied bench that offers shelter from prevailing winds and creates a calm, sunlit threshold. At the centre of the plan, a communal
kitchen forms the social heart of the building, anchored by a long custom- designed table designed by Adam Richards and handmade by Sussex joinery workshop, Fisher Morrisson. This space opens onto a secluded “secret garden”, a tranquil green space overlooked by all treatment and counselling rooms, ensuring access to light and air while maintaining privacy. A sequence of thresholds and smaller transitional spaces allows pupils to move gradually from the activity of school life into a quieter, more protected environment. The centre includes counselling rooms,
a treatment room, an isolation room and a four-bed dormitory, supported by a generous reception area. Designed to be welcoming, discreet and non-threatening, the building also functions as an informal refuge, a place where pupils can pause, share a hot chocolate and recharge. The interiors adopt a domestic sensibility,
expanding the language of care beyond clinical norms. Warm timber linings, soft daylight and calm proportions create an atmosphere that is hygienic without feeling clinical. Curved forms and rounded detailing, from lighting to built-in seating, draw on a cloister’s curved form whilst contributing to acoustic softness and spatial comfort. Adam Richards Architects also sourced all furniture for the project, ensuring consistency in material quality, durability and tone throughout. St. Raphael’s is constructed from natural, non-hazardous materials and designed as an all-electric building to minimise both embodied and operational carbon. The cross-laminated timber (CLT) frame replaces conventional steel or concrete, significantly reducing embodied carbon while sequestering carbon over the building’s lifespan. Internally, the timber structure is left exposed wherever possible, reducing the need for additional finishes and associated material use. The limestone bricks, developed by Polycor, are laid in lime mortar to enable
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