http://huftonandcrow.com/Our images can be purchased by contacting us at photos@huftonandcrow.com or visitingwww.viewpictures.co.uk/Building.aspx?ID=27718www.zaha-hadid.com/built-works/evelyn-grace-academy />CONCEPT:Zaha Hadid Architects’ first completed project in England, the Evelyn
Grace Academy in Brixton, south London for ARK Schools presents itself
as an open, transparent and welcoming addition to the community’s local
urban regeneration process. ARK Schools was founded in 2004 to work with
the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and local
authorities to create new schools offering exceptional opportunities to
local children in inner cities through their academies programme, with
the aim of helping to close the achievement gap between children from
disadvantaged and more affluent backgrounds.
Designed for 1200 pupils, the Evelyn Grace Academy maintains the
educational principle of smaller ‘schools-within-schools’; with Evelyn
and Grace Middle Schools each housing 270 pupils and Evelyn and Grace
Upper Schools housing 330 pupils per school. Each of these four smaller
schools are contained within highly functional spaces that give a
distinct identity both internally and externally. These spaces present
generous environments with maximum levels of natural light, ventilation
and understated but durable textures. The collective spaces – shared by
all schools – are planned to encourage social communication within each
school and eliminate problematic zones that require supervision.