St Vincent's School, Mill Hill
Client: St Vincent's School
Role: Architecture
Designing a new school that maximises its sloping site providing a learning environment that is not only low maintenance but also has low running costs.
The governors of St. Vincent's were particularly impressed with PRPs' nearby St Mary's School at Finchley, and appointed to design their new school for 315 pupils.
The site is within a conservation area and the green belt on a south facing slope with dramatic views over north London. In response to this the building is designed as a cluster of small buildings so as to have minimal impact on its surroundings, yet maximum benefit from the location.
The building, designed to child scale, is organised in two wings providing classrooms for younger and older children respectively; allowing for large gatherings of children or small intimate groups; and it responds to the classroom based approach to learning, appropriate to the requirements of the National Curriculum. The teaching wings are linked by the general and common facilities.
The plan form and section achieves natural lighting and ventilation to all principal spaces to create ideal classroom environment, which will also help towards the achievement of low maintenance and low running costs.
