St Saviour's and St Olave's | AOC architects

St Saviour’s & St Olave’s is a Church of England secondary school for girls with a specialism in science. The school has 800 pupils, with 150 of those in sixth form, and approximately 100 staff. It is located adjacent to the Bricklayers Arms Roundabout near Elephant & Castle. AOC were appointed to create a feasibility study for the redevelopment of the constrained campus. Public funding was approved and we led the design team through the development of a masterplan, detail design, public consultation, planning approval, construction funding approval and the subsequent implementation with Balfour Beatty Construction. The school serves a varied and mixed community and the design met the school’s desire for a fully inclusive and accessible building, supporting its educational vision and its positive relationship with the local neighbourhood. The scheme was developed with a careful consideration of the logistical realities of construction allowing the school to remain fully operational throughout the build. The school’s site was constrained by a perimeter wall and the need to respect its neighbours. They needed more accommodation but wanted to maintain high quality external spaces, including landscaped courtyards and lush gardens. A new building supplants the demolished 1958 wing of sub-standard fabric, providing 2,100sqm over three floors with a family of rooms for individual and peer group learning, specialist facilities, a multi-purpose activity studio and a rooftop learning terrace. Originally built facing the south the campus has had to evolve its orientation to the north as it has grown and the new building provides a new public street entrance, offering a reflected glimpse of the interior life by day and providing a welcome beacon at night. The new build is located against the site perimeter, resulting in the net loss of an underused north-facing yard and sub-standard existing facilities. Particular care was taken to create an active frontage that would make a positive contribution to the streetscape and the local area. The school’s accommodation is arranged around an external courtyard, connecting existing dead ends and significantly improving accessibility and connectivity up and across the range of buildings. The new activity studio opens onto the courtyard to provide a new meeting space at the heart of the public institution and an out-of-hours resource for the local community. The courtyard allows for an efficient, economical plan whilst creating a range of different rooms with excellent daylighting. Many rooms enjoy double or triple aspect, ensuring a variety of views, a range of light qualities and maximising natural ventilation. Only completed last year the new school buildings have been widely praised by pupils, staff, planners, politicians and critics, and has appeared in a number of publications, including a cover feature in the Architect’s Journal.