Whitgift School Classroom Block

Our masterplan for Whitgift School aims to achieve an enhanced and sustainable school environment through simple and practical interventions. Its first phase comprises four projects that respond to immediate needs and enable the implementation of the later phases of the vision. These are a new 3G pitch, the rationalisation of parking and vehicle circulation, covering the smaller of two existing quads and the creation of new classrooms.

The new classroom block for Whitgift School will provide necessary flexibility and an interim home for departments that need to be relocated in order to achieve the masterplan long-term goals. Developed as an expansion on the first floor of the school’s A Block and accessed from an existing corridor, the new build will create five good-quality classrooms for up to 28 pupils. The expansion will partly respond to the school’s pressing space needs as a discrete element of the masterplan, optimising the limited available land through very efficient use of space.

We propose to build the structure over an existing 1960s extension, in which the ground floor rooms are currently used as offices and languages classrooms for smaller groups; in the context of the masterplan, the long-term use of these rooms is being reconsidered and they will be used for activities more appropriate to their size and configuration.

The structure will provide a covered route leading to the dining room and, associated with the removal of coach parking from this area, generate a new amenity space dominated by the ancient cedar that gives it its name – effectively transforming the service yard into a place with its own identity.

The rooms will be naturally ventilated through high-level openable windows and buoyancy ventilation stacks at the rear.

Consultants

Structural and Civil Engineering: Perega

Environmental and Building Services Engineering: We Design For

Town Planning: Stiles Harold Williams

Transport and Highways: Steer

Heritage: Jon Lowe Heritage

Ecology: Ecosa

Arboriculture: Peter Thurman

Cost: Wenham O'Brien