Zaha Hadid Architects have completed this school that bridges a running track in Brixton, south London.
Designed for ARK Education, The Evelyn Grace Academy is organised into four smaller schools that share outdoor spaces and facilities.
The building zig-zags across the site with sports fields tucked between it and the roads on both sides.
Classrooms are organised along wide corridors with occasional double-height halls.
Photographs are by Luke Hayes.
More stories about buildings for education »
More stories about Zaha Hadid Architects »
The following text is from Zaha Hadid Architects:
The Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton, London Borough of Lambeth, broadens not only the educational diversity of this active and historical part of London but also augments the built environment in a predominantly residential area.
This Academy presents itself as an open, transparent and welcoming addition to the community’s local urban regeneration process.
The strategic location of the site within two main residential arteries naturally lends the built form to be coherent in formation.
The building assumes a strong urban character and identity which is legible to both the local and neighbouring zones.
It offers a learning environment that is spatially reassuring thereby being able to engage the students actively.
The design of the building proffers that, which contemporary architecture can, to create a healthy atmosphere as a milieu for progressive teaching routines.
In keeping with the educational ideology of ‘schools-within-schools’ the design is to creates natural segregation patterns nested within highly functional spaces which give each of the four smaller schools a distinct identity, both internally and externally.
These spaces present generous environs with maximum levels of natural light, ventilation and understated but durable textures.
The collective spaces - shared by all the schools - are planned to encourage social communication within a distinct hierarchy of natural aggregation nodes which weave together the extensive accommodation schedule.
Similarly, the external shared spaces, in order to generate a setting that encourages interaction, are treated in a manner of layering creating informal social and teaching spaces at various levels based on the convergence of multiple functions.
PROGRAM:
Secondary school for 1200 pupils
Building area: 10,745 m
CLIENT:
School trust: ARK Education
Government: DCSF
ARCHITECT:
Zaha Hadid Architects
Design: Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
Project: DirectorLars Teichmann
Project Architect: Matthew Hardcastle
Project Team: Lars Teichmann, Matthew Hardcastle, Bidisha Sinha, Henning Hansen, Lisamarie Villegas Ambia, Judith Wahle, Enrico Kleinke, Christine Chow, Guy Taylor, Patrick Bedarf, Sang Hilliges, Hoda Nobakhti
Project Manager: Capita Symonds
Engineers: Arup
Quantity Surveyors: Davis Langdon
Landscape: Gross Max
Acoustic Consultant: Sandy Brown Associates
Main Contractor (Design & Build): Mace Plus
Main Contractor’s Architects: Bamber & Reddan
CDM Co-ord: Arup
FF&E: Favourite Cat
Planning consultants: DTZ
Employer’s Agent: EC Harris
Catering Consultant: Winton Nightingale
Above: main elevations. Click above for larger image
Above: sections. Click above for larger image
Above: ground floor. Click above for larger image
Above: first floor. Click above for larger image
Above: second floor. Click above for larger image
Above: third floor. Click above for larger image
Above: depot layout. Click above for larger image
Above: site plan. Click above for larger image
See also:
.
 |
 |
 |
| West Buckland School by Rundell Associates |
Pestalozzi School by SOMAA |
The Langley Academy by Foster + Partners |
I live just opposite the school. As a young professional, I was first attracted here because of the cheap prices, proximity to tube and central London. That school has changed the look of a once lovely quite area for the worst. It sticks out like a sore thumb.
Like a grey, concrete space ship that landed in a once leafy London street. No consideration for the Edwardian brick houses around. And as I write this, they are cutting the old trees in front of the old brick wall next to it, which has become….. a Lambeth road depot for rubbish trucks…..You want to know about an urban planning atrocity unfolding and f***ing up the look of one of the few nice, green, leafy parts of Brixton…come and see for yourselves. After all, it’s not your area that architects are messing around and experimenting with.
I think it looks cool but it is way too cold for kids? Reminds me more of some kind of hi tech laboratories, definitely for grown up professionals..
So, that’s a thumbs up from Mike then.
Awesome school :) Would love to study there!
@rafal is right. This should be a military facility rather than a school. And I cant help to notice, the kids were using uniform too.