Through its unique academic environment, King’s College London Mathematics School will prepare students for degrees containing a high level of mathematics at the very best universities.
The school is spread across two buildings, the Main building is an Art Deco local landmark building restored in 1958, and the Annex building is a Brutalist reinforced concrete frame structure dating from the late ’60s.
Our brief was to rearrange the internal shell to allow for state of the art teaching and learning spaces, with intelligent consideration to how the students will learn and how we could encourage social interaction for sharing thoughts and less insular working. A strong emphasis to our design was a coordinated and exciting graphical branding of the school to give the students a sense of identity and ownership. This branding extended to the bespoke furniture and joinery.
The Annex building is accessed from Kennington Road and contains the schools visitors reception and administration spaces. The learning spaces within the annex include a design lab and CAD-CAM facilities, a classroom, group room and private study. The library is focal point of the Annex building, and is expressed to give the school a strong street presence.
The Main building is shared with the Lambeth Walk Group Practice surgery which occupies most of the ground floor area, the surgery is self-contained and accessed from Lambeth Walk. The school has a separate entrance to the rear of the building facing towards the Annex building. The ground floor opens to a shared breakout and social space, with the hall and ICT classroom off it. The main collection of classrooms and science laboratories are located on first floor, arranged around a central heart space of a top lit atrium, containing exciting bespoke pod group rooms. A focal point to the social integration is an open plan café space, positioned at the front of the building overlooking Lambeth Walk, and bringing natural light in to the building plan. A street presence is created through branding graphics on the cafe windows.
The school was officially opened by Nicky Morgan, the Secretary of State for Education, on September 2014.
Photography by Simon Kennedy
