Alexandra Park School

The expansion of Alexandra Park School from 6 to 8 form entry almost doubled the school population on an already constrained site. The challenge was to devise proposals that would bring order and coherence to the arrangement of buildings, both new and existing, that could also be constructed whilst the school was operational.

The new build elements include a main teaching block, an extension to science, a sixth form centre and a new performing arts department.

The project had ambitious sustainability objectives too. The buildings are naturally ventilated and passive heating and cooling is supplied by a ground coupling well field. In warm weather the ventilation chimneys in the main teaching block are assisted by fans driven by PVs on the roof. The design exemplifies our approach to careful environmental design and appeared as a case-study in the RIBA publication "Sustainable Architecture".