Mossbourne Community Academy

London, UK

Mossbourne Community Academy is one of the government sponsored city academies with ICT /technology and music/ drama as its area of specialisation.

The site, on the old Hackney Downs School, proved to be environmentally challenging as it is bounded on two sides by railway lines. The design solution was effectively a “V” shaped three-storey educational building comprising classrooms and laboratories on the upper two floors and a mixture of classrooms, engineering facilities, sports hall, music rooms, recording studios and supporting offices at ground level.

A series of thorough thermal, lighting and airflow modelling was used to assist in the development and optimisation of the passive design features.

Whilst being exposed to intrusive ambient noise, the majority of the school is fully naturally ventilated, supported by ventilation towers being compliant with the comfort objectives set out in BB87 & 93.

The design also allows deep daylight penetration and even daylight distribution via both the external windows facing the inner part of the site on one side and triple height patios which work as “breakout” spaces on the opposite side of the plan.

Overall, the design of the Mossbourne Community Academy achieves an ‘exemplar’ status with regards to environmental performance.