a+t architecture publishers

The building, featured in Civilities II, received The RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools Award in 2008. The use of schools as community service centres outside of the class schedule is becoming a more and more habitual tendency to extend activity to these spaces. In this case, by breaking down the programme into two buildings, part of this school becomes a sports centre for the entire community.

The efforts taken to recover free space underneath the motorway are outstanding, as they are used as sports fields. The frequent presence of elevated motorways in cities creates very complex situations. These are fractures in urban fabric that are poorly resolved and thus give way to profound differences in the areas that they divide.

This project, which changes the main building, the icon of one of the poorest neighbourhoods in London, incorporates a public pedestrian path that connects the two sides of the motorway and the train tracks, in an effort to repair the crack that separates it from the rest of the district it is part of, Westminster, one of the wealthiest districts in the city.

Photos taken by Javier Arpa, available under request.

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
Westminster Academy
259-265, Harrow Road, London
United Kingdom