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| Fri 29 Aug 2008 |
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A CHANGE OF TUNE - Kingsdale School, Dulwich, South East London |
Wednesday, 01 August 2007 |
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 We don’t know about you, but school wasn’t exactly the most inspiring of places. Concrete bunkers for buildings, concrete tennis courts for ‘recreation’ and food that tasted, well, like concrete. Yes, school did sound like a brutalist architects dream. But, Reynar Banham was nowhere to be seen. This is much the same story for most schools under the comprehensive banner. Kids are taught in buildings resembling cell blocks. The only exceptions coming from the private institutions Britain is famed for. Education it seems, is taught from books not experienced by what surrounds you.  Recently however, there has been a change of thought when it comes to school design. De Rijke Marsh Morgan Architects (dRMM) are adding the final touches to their overhaul of Kingsdale School in south east London to dazzling effect. Rather than the standard dreary courtyard favoured by modernist architects of the 1950s – a giant atrium now sits under the worlds largest EFTE variable roof – which has the ability to be cooled and heated to insulate in winter and cool in summer. The result is a new space for dining, assembly and a new auditorium sat inside a giant octahedron. A vast improvement on the cruel inhuman space that stood there previously.  dRMM have also built a new music hall and gymnasium to accompany the now iconic central space. In the music hall, windows are etched out of the wooden interior with the material then used to form tables below. The effect is a wonderful mix of shapes and rays of light that change and move with the sun. While the sports hall’s dramatic beams rotate around an invisible axis resembling an Escher drawing. All achieved without compromising the space’s purpose as a place of play. What this school was designed to do was illustrate the importance of the spaces people exist in. Education for most of the twentieth century was bereft of any debate about where children should be taught. Hopefully Kingsdale School will start to change that. By Matt Hussey Related Link: The Designer Super Gym Has Arrived Kids Kool Spaces |
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