Description

In 2000, England’s Learning and Skills Act introduced a new type of secondary school into the country known as the ‘Academy’, each being partially funded by a business, faith group or and individual. The Academy model was created as a means of improving failing schools and those located in troubled communities.

Since 2004, as part of that initiative five new academies have opened in the London Borough of Hackney alone, a borough that was one of the most deprived areas in England. The Borough’s Economic Development Plan cites ‘poor educational achievement and a culture unsympathetic to learning’ as a key contributor to high levels of unemployment in the area, one of the main determinants of social and economic deprivation. In England, up until a change in policy in 2010, nearly all academies were located in new and purposely designed buildings and the government placed an emphasis on not only improving educational attainment in these areas, but also on the opportunity for these new schools to play a role in local regeneration and neighbourhood renewal.

The first of the Hackney academies to open and one of the first in the country was Mossbourne Community Academy. The academy opened on the site of the former Hackney Downs School, a comprehensive secondary school which was forced to close in 1995 after being called ‘the worst school in Britain’ by the then conservative government. Today, Mossbourne’s examination results rank among the top state schools in the country and the school’s popularity is astounding; there are over eight applications for each place. But what role has the new building had on achieving this success and raising aspirations in the area?

Richard Rogers saw Mossbourne Community Academy as an opportunity to put into practice many of the recommendations for urban regeneration in England made by his Urban Task Force. Ivan Harbour, a Senior Director at the practice (now Rogers, Stirk Harbour and Partners) affirmed: ‘This project is all about putting pride back into a community. It is about ownership, equality and heart.’ The provision of a new school and facilities by itself in an area such as Hackney suggests to the community that they are valued, but here it seems the architectural design has also played a large part in the success of this building. One of the largest timber frame buildings in the UK, the three-storey V-shaped building with external steel walkways and stairs sets itself apart from other institutional buildings in the area and has become a beacon in the neighbourhood. It certainly does not look like a typical school building and its unique design is clearly identifiable from both the train lines that flank two of its sides and from the open space of Hackney Downs onto which the school fronts. In the United States the National Clearinghouse for Education Facilities recognises such an approach in its publication Schools as Centers of Community: ‘By capturing the noble character of public architecture, they [schools] should serve as a visible symbol of community pride.’ In this case the decision of the academy to appoint such a high profile architect was a sign to parents, staff and children that they are deserving of world-class facilities. It has been suggested that the new building may not have had the same impact on the community and its users had it been designed by an unknown architect.

 

Sources:

Jenny Percival, ’Ten Mossbourne Academy Students Win Cambridge University
Offers’, The Guardian, 23 January 2011.
www.theguardian.com/…/mossbourne-academy-cambridge-university-offers

Peter Wilby,’Is Mossbourne Academy’s Success Down to its Traditionalist
Headteacher?’The Guardian, 5 January 2010.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/jan/05/mossbourne-academy-wilby-profile

‘Schools as Centers of Community: A Citizen’s Guide for Planning and Design’,
Washington, D.C.: NCEF, 2003.

http://www.ncef.org/pubs/scc_publication.pdf

The Urban Task Force, ‘Towards a Strong Urban Renaissance’, November 2005.
http://www.urbantaskforce.org/UTF_final_report.pdf

‘Mossbourne Community Academy by Richard Rogers Partnership is the Showpiece
Experimental Replacement for the Failed Hackney Downs School’, Architecture
Today, October 2004, no. 152, pp. 20–31.

 

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Originally published in: Prue Chiles (ed.), Leo Care, Howard Evans, Anna Holder, Claire Kemp, Building Schools: Key Issues for Contemporary Design, Birkhäuser, 2015.