St. Mary’s CE School
London
Client: Richmond Council
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Town planning
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Landscape architecture
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Architecture
“The new site has given the children space, light and up-to-the-minute accommodation. The refurbishment of the original site has brought out the best of an old building combined with sympathetic new build.”
MARY COLLINS, Headteacher,
St Mary’s CE School
The practice was architect, landscape architect and town planner for this new primary school in Richmond, London. It was built around Orleans Park Secondary School’s sports hall to diminish its impact on the site. The school houses junior classes and special needs, with three functional elements linked by short corridors. These are the reception and staff areas, the classrooms and the main hall.
The entrance and reception are bold, sculptural and clearly legible as the arrival point. An internal two storey void, lit from above, and a tapering space signal the transition to the heart of the school.
A slope runs across the site, and this was used to step the building, offering natural shelter to the ground floor classrooms and making it possible to access the play spaces from the ground and first floors.
