King Alfred’s School

Our redevelopment of the Middle School takes advantage of the site, opening class rooms onto the playing fields and creating semi-enclosed terraces. These cabin-like spaces, with their shallow pitched glazed roofs, mediate between the more formal teaching areas and the informal realm of outdoor activities and play areas. They also offer an intimate ‘individual space’ within the group environment of a school. The steel and timber frame clad in cedar boarding was conducive to fast-track construction, necessary in order to complete the buildings in successive summer holidays. The classrooms, which are naturally top-lit and ventilated, are designed to minimise energy use. This was the practice’s first truly energy-efficient building.