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Newsletter Article Kingsdale School new buildings by Ian McInnes Most Dulwich residents will be well aware of the major changes that have taken place in the main teaching block at Kingsdale School on Alleyn Park - the pressurised ETFE roof over the central courtyard and the new auditorium space. However, unless they have recently driven along Bowen Drive on the Kingswood Estate, they will not be aware of two new unusual shaped buildings at the rear of the school - the new Music School and Sports Hall. These were completed earlier last year and replace older facilities dating from the late 1950s that were both spatially and acoustically inadequate. As well as providing the most up-to-date facilities and complying with all the latest Department for Education and Science guidelines, the new buildings had to respond to a school brief which required maximum flexibility in use and the option of independent access and use out of hours. By definition both music and sports require hermetically sealed buildings with substantial walls to prevent noise escaping and few windows to let passes-by see in. The design of what is essentially two large boxes, split by the vertical circulation routes, is imaginative. Driven both by functional and sustainability requirements, and the desire to create a forward looking image for the school, the architects dRMM (de Rijke Marsh Morgan), have been creative and innovative - while also making sure that the final result is an appropriate addition to the existing streetscape. The prefabricated construction system of cross laminated solid timber panels imported from Austria provided benefits in terms of rapid construction, factory quality finishes and the removal of time consuming wet trades. The panels were used on both the walls and the hyperbolic shaped roofs and also serve as internal partitions. Externally the buildings are faced in insulation and metal profiled cladding with an embossed surface that, from a distance, actually looks like timber. Some might ask whether to import components from Austria is really sustainable but a case can be made when one compares the actual amount of travel that traditional construction imposes on both materials and men. Those who saw the speed with which the Huf houses went up in the Woodyard will understand the benefits that true prefabrication can offer. Acoustic specifications mean that large parts of the music school are air conditioned - not so sustainable but understandable, but the scheme does includes a large amount of new cycle storage to actively encourage pupils to ride to school. Overall, some may think the buildings a little too 'contemporary' for Dulwich but they reflect and respond to Kingsdale School's reinvention of itself and should be welcomed on that score alone. Compared with some other recent buildings in Dulwich's private schools they are in a different league. |
