A winner of a RIBA National Award in 2005, this highly acclaimed project was also ‘Public Buildings Category Winner’ and ‘Overall Winner’ at the Kent Building Design Awards in 2004. A 1FE, 210-pupil school located on a site deemed to be an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’, the site enjoys fantastic views to the south over the English Channel.
The building’s form evolved naturally out of the site circumstance: the design aims to allow the sea views to be a natural stimulant to the school’s pupils, whilst the flowing wave roof form echoes to the building’s coastal location whilst simultaneously addressing the strong winds that gust from the Channel. Each classroom has aspect to the sea and, on warmer days, teaching is able to spill from the classrooms to timber-decked external teaching areas. The scheme’s location on the site shields the playground to the rear from the southerly winds, whilst the gabion wall to the front in combination with the surrounding landscaped perimeter fences secures the site.
The building’s vernacular material palette responds to the design’s location through the specification of durable, low maintenance materials such as a metal profile roof and timber cedar boarding that will weather gracefully. These locally sourced materials have low embodied energy, whilst the high insulations levels, high thermal mass and south-facing glazing ensure excellent energy efficiency in the building’s operation. The scheme also uses a grey-water recycling scheme for use for underfloor cooling, toilet flushing and landscaping watering.
The building has become a precedent for those championing the virtues of sustainability-motivated, site-responsive, innovative school design. The building’s integration of an energy efficient logic in combination with intelligent, inventive, concept-driven design continues to win it many plaudits.