Education
Our Approach to Architecture in Education
On this page we set out the services we offer, the approach we take, and give examples of completed work. You can download our education portfolio here.
Architecture and education – services:
- masterplanning – short medium and long term
- assessing complex historic sites
- landscape and rural character appraisals
- feasibility studies
- planning applications in sensitive settings
- sound and acoustics – theatre and performance spaces
- lecture theatres
- classrooms
- arts centres attached to schools
- play space and playgrounds
- student accommodation and halls of residence
- boarding houses
- administration of complex projects on site
- user feedback and participation
- lectures and educational visits
The MBA approach:
- doing smart things to old buildings, and smart new buildings respecting their site
- listening to what users – teachers and students – actually want, rather than telling them what is good for them
- concentrating on real issues based on people who know the spaces
- assessing the site and the environment around it
- considering history, use, meaning, and significance
- reusing and adapting rather than knocking down old buildings
- what it looks like is not the starting point, it becomes what it looks like as a result of what it is
- a sense of fun
- use of colour
- spatial awareness sequences of space
- value not cheapness
- designing for robustness and flexibility
- involvement of users and client
- scale: putting child first, eye lines and sense of touch
Examples of built work show the MBA difference:
- quality of the design – inside and out
- simplicity and a restrained palette of materials.
Higher Education
- University of the Arts, London, Wimbledon College of Art, new foyer, theatre, film studio, archive, art studio, accessibility works.
- Oriel College, Oxford – entrance, Porters lodge, Provost’s lodgings, student accommodation, master plan
- St Peters College, Oxford – student accommodation
- Nuffield College, Oxford – design for lecture theatre and student centre
- New College, Oxford – conservation and master plan
- Heythrop College, London – access and common parts
- UCL School of Pharmacy, London – dean and CEO offices, library
Secondary Education
- University College, London – sports pavilion
- King’s College Wimbledon – sports pavilion
- Harrow School – rackets court
- Harrow School – extensions to two boarding houses
- Clifton College, Bristol – two new boarding houses
- London Road, Mitcham: residential care home for young adults with learning disabilities.
Primary Education
- Cumnor House School: classrooms, design technology workshop, master plan, changing rooms, new theatre
- New College School. Alterations to hall and playground
- Willington Preparatory School – studio theatre
- St David’s School, Purley – craft design technology classroom.
