Bedford School
Following a successful competition entry, we developed proposals for a new teaching facility arranged over two-storeys to contain 21 classrooms for Maths, Economics and Computer Science, along with smaller rooms for group working and seminars. The building is conceived as a chain of simple square teaching volumes set around central atriums, breakout spaces and a circulation concourse. Its location is carefully considered in relation to the school’s historic campus, which includes listed buildings, and its connection to the neighbourhood and surrounding public realm.
The massing of the New Academic Building responds to the character and appearance of the Conservation Area’s late-Victorian detached villas. The new facades borrow from the organisational principles and neo-gothic elements of the Main School Building - employing deep reveals, gabled roofs, chimneys and a lantern to create generous, bright and airy spaces for teaching and learning. In front of the new building, a generous pedestrianised square with delicate trees and lush low-level planting is proposed. To the rear, a series of small villa gardens will be combined to form a larger courtyard garden captured by the existing library and New Academic Building, hosting teaching terraces and verdant spaces for socialising and rest.