Music School, King's College

Music School, King's College, Wimbledon

Our work on this award-winning project allowed the scheme to maximise energy efficiency and push the boundaries of passive design.

As well as meeting  the brief of maximising daylight and minimising the need for artificial lighting, our solutions incorporated natural ventilation into the overall strategy, reducing dependency on active heating and cooling.

The music school is arranged over three floors and the project included creation of sound-proofed practice rooms, larger group rehearsal spaces , specialist classrooms and a ‘mixed-mode’ concert hall accommodating a 70-piece orchestra and a seated audience of 200. In addition, the scheme also included construction of a porter’s lodge and caretaker’s residence.

Most practice rooms were constructed using a ‘box-in-box’ method with all services were run from the corridors and back out again. This means there is no penetration between rooms, which allows music to be practiced without negatively affecting other parts of the school, campus or the neighbourhood.

The project targeted a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ rating, which posed many challenges, particularly in relation to energy consumption. To address these, passive systems as well as low and zero carbon technologies were integrated into the design, resulting in further energy and cost savings to the client.

The building used sustainable materials - notably bricks and wood - throughout, with a high-performance façade minimising solar gains. The project was awarded a RIBA National Award in 2019, with award judges saying they were ‘impressed by the delicate detailing and marquetry of the structure, materials and lighting / services coordination’.