Hallfield School
London, United Kingdom 2001–2005
Client: Westminster City Council Grade II* listed RIBA Award for Building in a Historic Context
This project at Hallfield School in west London is an extension to a much-loved modernist icon, one of the earliest works of the architect Denys Lasdun. The school was built in 1955 and is Grade II* listed.
The project involved the construction of six new junior classrooms and three new infants’ classrooms in the garden area of the school. The new buildings were required to replace temporary accommodation that had been on the site for more than twenty-five years. The design for two compact buildings, one for the junior school and one for the infants, allows each to be next to its own part of the school and preserves the playground spaces. Each building is placed as close to its neighbour as possible, so that the spaces between have shape and intimacy, as is the case with Lasdun’s composition. The new buildings appear to have joined the group, carefully closing off views from the centre of the site as if they are the last pieces of a complicated jigsaw.
The plans of the new buildings form spiralling clusters of three major rooms, where each classroom is on a corner with a wide aspect over the site. The large windows to the hallways and generous glazing at the doors to the classrooms allow glimpses across the deep floors from room to hall to outside, such that the interiors feel open and full of the sum of everyone’s activity.
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Drawings
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Site plan
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Infants school, ground floor plan
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Junior school, ground floor plan
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Junior school, first floor plan
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Infants school, cross-sections
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Junior school, external wall detail
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Junior school, stair detail
Credits
Location
Westminster, London, United Kingdom
Date
2001–2005
Client
Westminster City Council, Hallfield School
Area
1,200m²
Caruso St John Architects
Adam Caruso, Peter St John
Project team
Lorenzo De Chiffre, Rod Heyes, Prisca Thielmann, Silvia Ullimayer, Esther Waterfield
Structural engineer
Price & Myers LLP
Services engineer
Max Fordham LLP
Cost consultant
MH Jackson & Associates
Main contractor
Lakehouse Contracts
Photography
Hélène Binet
Awards
RIBA Award
RIBA Award for Building in a Historic Context
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