Description

Burntwood School in southwest London was planned as a campus in the fifties and from 2011-2014 comprehensively converted and renewed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM). In 2015, the architects were awarded the coveted Stirling Prize for the project.

The two long sides of the school campus each overlook parks while the north and south ends adjoin the urban grain of the London borough of Wandsworth. The main entrance from Burntwood Lane at the north end of the campus for some 2000 pupils passes beneath a glazed bridge, past the bright yellow entrance building containing the school’s Business Skills Centre on the upper floors, revealing a view over the entire campus. A covered walkway acts as a central axial spine running the length of the campus, while the terrain slopes at right angles to it with a height difference of four metres from edge to edge. Three four-storey classroom blocks lie to the left parallel to the axis with the sports hall at the end and sports fields beyond. To the right is the original assembly hall with the new canteen next to it. One’s first impression is of concrete blocks cast in faceted forms, and it is only on closer inspection that one sees the colour-coding of the buildings that enliven the grey impression.

The school was originally built in the 1950s by London County Council (LCC), the forerunner to the Greater London Authority (GLA), during the heyday of the welfare state. Sir Leslie Martin (1908-2000), who became Chief Architect of the LLC in 1953, assembled a department that included Colin St. John Wilson, James Stirling and Alison and Peter Smithson who together created numerous modernist works of architecture. He himself is best known for the building of the Royal Festival Hall, completed in 1951, on the south bank of the River Thames.

To minimise expenditure on temporary classrooms and to make maximum use of the budget for the new buildings, a complex strategy was developed for the building phases. The new buildings are inserted into the spaces between the old ones. While the overall construction took longer, the school could remain open throughout. The prefabrication of the facade panels likewise reduced the construction time on site.

The new east-west oriented classrooms are simple concrete skeleton frame structures clad with 3- and 4.5-metre-wide precast concrete panels that correspond to the structural modules of the classrooms. The grid gives the buildings a sense of overall visual unity with the different panel arrangements creating variety, lending the side elevations in particular a pleasing syncopation.

The canteen stands apart from the concrete building as a lightweight, shiny black building, and contains rows of wooden tables and benches like a refectory. The first floor contains spaces for music and performing arts. Adjoining the studios is a terrace and new bridge to the assembly hall.

AHMM have used strong colours for the campus. While the interiors are predominantly neutral, with exposed concrete, white walls and black surfaces, they are interspersed with playful, triangular retro patterns in vibrant blue, red and green. The coloured tiles and wall paintings were developed by Studio Myerscough and inspired by original samples from the fifties, the new faceted facades and the woven carpets and drawings made by women at the Bauhaus. The staircases likewise follow the colour coding of the respective building with the colours mixing only in the canteen and performing arts building used by all the pupils.

The landscaping by Kinnear Landscape Architects is restrained, helping to embed the building masses in the landscape. Existing mature trees were retained wherever possible, with new tree planting added to assist orientation on the campus.

Although security and surveillance play a comparatively important role in British schools, the buildings in Burntwood are not fenced off. While a fence encloses the entire campus, the school management was able to dispense with the usual barriers that protect pupils from outsiders and separate them from one another. Similarly, the use of house numbers and colours helps keep signage to a minimum. As such, the architecture of the campus is self-explanatory.

Originally published in Bauwelt 03.2016, pp. 16-25, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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