Ibstock Brick In Contemporary School Setting

Building Design Partnership's much vaunted Hampden Gurney Church of England School - a Stirling prize finalist - has turned inner city school design on its end.

As well as its innovative structure, it combines a selection of contemporary building materials, including Ibstock's Nostell Royston Cream bricks, to create an integrated solution to an urban infill location, north of Marble Arch.

The development comprises a bow-fronted five-storey steel, timber and glass school with a private residential block, on a site off Edgware Road that had not been satisfactorily built over since war damage removed some of the Georgian housing.

The high quality residential block, which is fully faced in Nostell Royston Cream, was developed to help pay for the school.

Working with BDP, Ibstock researched and suggested a range of bricks to match the colour and texture of the neighbouring buildings.

This enabled BDP to make the final choice, and ensured that the Nostell bricks were suitable for the duties required such as for copings and exposure.

The school is arranged around four classroom floors, starting with the nursery class on the ground floor, with rubber finished timber decking to the front as play areas for the two classrooms on each floor.

The floors are pierced by a bridged light well, there is a covered roof area with technology garden and study room and the lower ground floor houses a hall/gym/dining hall with a large rear play area.

The innovative structure comes from the steel frame with a bow-arch truss over the light well, which supports a tent canopy and the central bridges.

BDP comments: "The outer envelope for the school and housing is Ibstock Nostell Royston Cream brick.

It was chosen to be sympathetic to the adjacent listed building, yet have a precise, contemporary appearance.

'On the school's southern elevation, the two brick-faced stair towers act as solid counterpoint to the lightness and transparency of the play deck areas between them.

The brick plinth and disabled ramps help anchor the building to the ground, and on the northern facade the brickwork is used in a conventional way with 'hole in the wall' openings.

The perimeter wall to the lower ground play area is livened with a wave of textured brickwork - Ibstock's Roughdales Albany Cream.

We have emphasised the planar quality of the walls by choosing mortar of a similar colour to the bricks, and dealing with the openings in a simple way.' The spacious private residential units include penthouse flats, which feature a high curved ceiling, following the roofline above.

The residents' rear garden, above an underground private car park, is overlooked by the school, thus acting as a shared visual amenity and further integrating the school with the surrounding buildings.

Architect: BDP, London; Contractor: Jarvis Construction, Romford; Brickwork sub-contractor: Grangewood Builders, Epping.

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