New look for the typical English Gothic school. School of Science and Sport Building for Brighton College by OMA
15/01/2020.
[Brighton] UK
metalocus, JOAN MARSET
metalocus, JOAN MARSET
Project description by OMA
The new School of Science and Sport for Brighton College, designed by OMA / Ellen van Loon, was inaugurated in an official ceremony by Sir Nicholas Soames on January 9 in the presence of Simon Smits, the Dutch ambassador to the UK, Headmaster Richard Cairns, and Ellen van Loon.
The School for Sports and Science defies the conventional character of educational buildings – one of endless empty hallways and imposed silence – and instead combines the two departments to create a vibrant building with lively spaces where activities are not necessarily dictated by a school timetable. Observing that processes of learning take place outside as much as inside of the classroom, the design articulates a new idea of educational space bolstering interaction and exchange.
Individual components of the building are exposed to each other: an indoor running track on the ground floor is visible from upper levels, classrooms have floor to ceiling windows, even fume hoods in the chemistry classrooms are made transparent – enabling people walking down the hallway to witness ongoing experiments.
Headmaster Richard Cairns: “My concern as an educator has always been the silo mentality of academic institutions so that subject specialists in one area don’t talk to those in another. My challenge to Ellen was to create a building where different academic disciplines were interwoven into the same building. I really wanted to be able to stand on the sports field outside and see a beehive of different activities going on, wonderfully interconnected and alive. This Ellen delivered in spades.”
Ellen van Loon: “We wanted to give Brighton College a building that continues to deliver more than strictly required, expanding the traditional definition of educational architecture. Generous spaces outside of classrooms become the pupils’ domain for self-directed activity and collaboration.”
Carol Patterson, Director-in-Charge: “Working on active projects in the UK with OMA for the last dozen or so years, Brighton College was the ultimate cultural deep dive. Merging our analytical thinking on space and occupation in such a historical typology was a fulfilling challenge. To see the building actively in use exceeds my imagination.”
Established in 1845, Brighton College is a private, co-ed boarding and day school in Brighton, England, and over the years has cemented its reputation as one of Britain's leading schools and was named the top independent school by the Sunday Times. The campus is comprised of two areas: a historical quadrangle, composed of Grade II listed buildings designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and Sir Thomas Jackson in the 19th century; and the playing field lined with buildings from the 1970s and 1980s, the site of the new building.
Brighton College is the first built school for secondary education by OMA. It follows the educational projects Lab City CentraleSupélec (2017), Millstein Hall (2011) and the IIT McCormick Tribune Campus Center (2003).
Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a leading international partnership practising architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. OMA's buildings and masterplans around the world insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities for content and everyday use. OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia.
OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.
OMA’s completed projects include Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), Fondazione Prada in Milan (2015); G-Star Headquarters in Amsterdam (2014); Shenzhen Stock Exchange (2013); De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), New Court, the headquarters for Rothschild Bank in London (2011); Milstein Hall at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (2011); and Maggie's Centre, a cancer care centre in Glasgow (2011). Earlier buildings include Casa da Música in Porto (2005), Seattle Central Library (2004), and Netherlands Embassy in Berlin (2003).
Ellen van Loon joined OMA in 1998 and has led several award-winning building projects that combine sophisticated design with precise execution. Some of her most significant contributions include the new G-Star Headquarters in Amsterdam (2014); De Rotterdam, the largest building in the Netherlands (2013); New Court, the Rothschild Bank headquarters in London (2011); exterior and interior design for Maggie's Centre near Glasgow (2011); the Prada Transformer pavilion in Seoul (2009); Casa da Musica in Porto (2005), winner of the 2007 RIBA Award; and the Dutch Embassy in Berlin (2003), winner of the European Union Mies van der Rohe award in 2005.
Van Loon is currently working on Factory, a large performing arts venue for Manchester; a new building for Brighton College in England; and the home of the Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen.