Henry Compton School

Client: Hammersmith and Fulham BSF

Location: Fulham, London

Area: 5000 sqm approx

Value: N/A

Procurement: Building Schools for the Future

Fleet and Henry Compton School were selected overall winners of the Hammersmith and Fulham Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Design Conference 2009. The conference, organised by Surface to Air took the form of a day long design charrette, in which 12 architectural practices were partnered with local primary/ secondary schools, each of which had a need or desire to improve their current building stock. The notable judging panel announced Fleet overall winners of the event, with such comments as ‘Great’, ‘Enthusiastic and energetic’ and ‘Spot on brief’.

Fleet were paired with Henry Compton Secondary School, a single sex specialist science college, with approximately 600 boys aged 11-16. Located just off the Fulham Palace Road, the school is a contrasting collection of buildings ranging between listed Victorian buildings (including a listed wall that runs through the middle of the site); 1960’s halls, and a couple of more recent additions.

Working with a mix of year 8 and 9 pupils (Dovelet, Ahmed, Elshad and Sean), and their teacher (Ms Seema) and headmaster (Mr Ramjee), a brief was developed first through listing out existing weaknesses and future wishes. All agreed that there were not enough covered external areas; the 60’s buildings were struggling to provide the appropriate flexibility of function the school requires; the existing buildings offer poor accessibility, and there was no announcement of the fact that Henry Compton School excels in the teaching of science.

With the pupils assistance we created a masterplan for the site helping to identify opportunities relating to the groups comments, which led to a larger model of our BIG SCIENCE proposal…