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Medal Winner 2004
Serjeant Award for Excellence in Drawing

Breaking the Cage (Humanising the Institution): A Secondary School on London Fields in Hackney

Part 1 Project 2004
Ulla Tervo
 London Metropolitan University | UK
An institution, such as a school, both restricts and liberates the individual: the restrictions should be counterbalanced by providing for the individual user, and not only for the movement of masses of people. A single, deep-plan block was taken as a challenging starting point for the project of deinstitutionalising the institution or, metaphorically, of 'breaking the cage'. Specific points were proposed for achieving this, which were then formulated into a building design, and carefully thought of within the more general social and political context, as well as within the more specific context of the site on London Fields in Hackney. Two educational establishments: a secondary school and a Pupil Referral Unit were proposed to form a cluster with the existing primary school and nursery. The project consciously attempted to find a balance between the various, observed extremes: the 'institutional' and the humane; the natural and the artificial; repetition and difference; the physical reality of the park and the virtual reality of the advertisements and signs of the surrounding cityscape; hidden and revealed views; robust and delicate materials; the universal and the particular; and not least importantly, the theoretical and the practical.


The project is a design for a secondary school sited at the southern edge of London Fields, forming an educational campus in conjunction with the adjacent existing primary school and nursery. The school is conceived of as an institutional cage that is cut into analogously and physically in an attempt to humanise the environment in which children can learn and interact. Internal and external voids combine to allow for the movement of air, the modelling of light and a series of complex spatial relationships. A layered façade of glass and steel mesh curtains act as a counterpoint to the order of the overall composition.

2004
A deep-plan, small-footprint block; a cage; an institution - physically and metaphorically cut into in an attempt to humanise it.
A cultural focus in the context of the gentrification of Hackney. It is intended that the secondary school would be a privately-funded, specialist sports school, providing its facilities also for community use.
A study of the signs in the area: advertisements, warning signs, traffic signs and graffiti. The park is seen as a place of refuge from the 'visual noise' of the surrounding cityscape - as a politically neutral area.
The massing and siting of the buildings was tested in block models. The final positioning is respective of the views into the park from the surrounding buildings, offers a soft edge (playgrounds) towards the road and forms a narrow gateway into the pa
A cluster of schools: the proposed pupil referral unit and a secondary school neighbour the existing primary school and nursery. The Broadway Market area is extended slightly to enable the straightening of the road of this busy junction.
A structure within a structure. The sportshall is defined as a separate volume by a continuous polycarbonate 'wrapping', which has either opaque or transparent insulation/ interior finish behind it, and on the ceilings: lighting hidden above it.
"Abolishing the signifiers": Emphasising material qualities over the virtual: permanence, unexpectedness, sensory stimuli, complexity.
These drawings became the main inspiration for the layering of spaces, as well as for the idea of porosity.
Porosity, not transparency. Full transparency would not be comfortable for the occupants, nor energy-efficient, and, in terms of this building, would not achieve much conceptually.
A balance between clarity and complexity. The ground floor plan. The main entrance is through a small anteroom, slotted under the sportshall. The park-level playground is located in between the building and the road, with a 2m high mound before the ro
The first floor plan. The two main atria are visible - one external, the other internal. The latter is also used as a rainwater collection point. The straight, double-height staircases work as lightshafts in the north-south direction.
The rooftop playground with skylights/ passive ventilation chimneys ... the dining hall is the most transparent part of the building ... the corridor along the south facade ... the space next to the entrance showing the sunken ground floor.
The structure; and a constructional detail through the south facade, roof and foundations. The staircase isometric drawing shows how the stair cantilevers off the steel structure. The joints are hidden behind a semitransparent, stripped cedar wall.
A 'non-panopticon' organisation of circulation. 'Weaving' of routes through the building allows for varied views. The classrooms and corridors are staggered so, as to alternately open up into the atria and take advantage of the light and air.
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