Uppingham School
Integrating an evolving campus into a historic town
An evolving story Our twenty-year architectural relationship with Uppingham School began with an introduction from one of our early commercial clients and a commission to design a new music centre. The project demanded a sensitive touch: the school estate is deeply woven into the streetscape of a historic market town, and gaining planning permission was pivotal. Informed by the challenging constraints of The American School campus in London, we delivered a contemporary building that slots almost unnoticed into the dense fabric – fitting to the town yet specific to the school.
Site plan showing integration of school and town.
Aerial view highlighting the school’s relationship with the wider townscape and surrounding landscape.
Aerial view.
The school buildings represent a range of building styles and histories.
The campus is set in extensive sports fields and landscaped grounds.
Students look out onto the sports pitches from Orms' sports building.
The spaces between Having become a trusted partner to the school we were invited to work on a long-term masterplan titled ‘Making the most of what we have’. In it we proposed ways to increase coherence across a diverse estate that has developed over five hundred years, making better use of under-utilised spaces and setting out a programme for refurbishment and new-build that could be adapted according to student numbers. Much of our work focused on the important – but often forgotten – in-between spaces that shape the physical and emotional experience of any school.
Phased evolution Our masterplan looked in detail at the school’s western quadrangle – an extension to the campus on the edge of town close to the playing fields. Identifying that the existing sports centre was no longer fit for purpose, we designed a replacement, which in turn freed up space for a new science building.
Village of pavilions Rather than creating an anonymous sealed box, we approached the sports centre as a townscape, fragmenting the functions – pool and fitness centre, sports hall, gym – into a series of human-scaled volumes. The height of the main pool pavilion is disguised by the sloping landscape, which wraps over the plant and storage and forms a grassy grandstand. Nearby is our only thatched building to date – a rugby pavilion that replaces an existing 1920s structure.
A destination for science Uppingham’s headmaster, Richard Harman, wrote an inspirational brief for the school’s new science building, which he saw as “connecting in concept, if not in a physical, material sense” with neighbouring facilities for sport, art, drama and maths in a way that evoked the Renaissance. Our design is therefore the opposite of a functional, sterile space, and is a destination for students – not just ‘scientists’. It is a place for all to gather and become immersed in scientific activity. Forming one side of the western quadrangle, it acts as a full stop to the school’s town centre estate.
Fishtank installation exploring biological diversity and encouraging environmental observation.
Brick detailing inspired by the geometry of a helix curve.
Science-inspired patterns in the atrium.
A working pendulum provides a focal point in the atrium.
An educational artwork: three-dimensional periodic.
Games of light and volume The building is made up of three volumes, arranged in an L-shaped plan and built to Passivhaus principles. The south wing sits along the street and is public facing, with a reception area, buttery and exhibition space along with the foyer to a ground-floor lecture theatre. A colonnade runs around it to the north – a place to leave coats and bags while in class.
Connecting voids between departments.
Natural light streams through the atrium.
Light and shadow.
Careful skylight interventions bring natural light into the practice spaces in the music school.
Light penetrates the space through circular voids.
Space for experimentation The west wing helps to enclose the quadrangle, with three storeys of labs and classrooms. Chemistry spaces – visible through glazed panels – are placed at the bottom, with biology and physics above. The third volume is ‘jewel box’ which sits above the south wing and houses an outdoor classroom and eco-lab. It also allows for a triple height atrium where scientific artworks and artefacts are displayed, and a spiral stair which – to our delight – has become the launchpad for many experimental activities.
Location
Uppingham, Rutland
Client
Uppingham School
Date
2014
Borough
Rutland