Parliament Hill

Client Advisers for Parliament Hill and William Ellis secondary schools, Camden, London

The design will have six hubs, conceived as Petals of a flower, each one home to an important central resource for use by the whole school. Each Petal will have a large open space, known as a Commons, that forms the centre-piece of a learning suite, including rooms to hold a variety of group sizes to suit different activities and a wide choice of settings and technology. Each Commons can also be a pastoral base.

Five petals will each support a learning centre with specialist learning at the petal ‘tips’ providing ‘colour’ to the whole learning centre and adjacent grounds. Each will also host a range of general learning spaces including the open plan learning ‘commons’.

Each of these petals represents a pastoral base for one fifth of the cohort of years 7-11 (with 180 students in each). Social functions will be located at the centre of each petal to form a supportive network at the heart of the whole school flower.

The sixth petal will be for year 12 and 13 students and will overlap with joint 6th form provision shared between William Ellis School and Parliament Hill School.

William Ellis

The design will define seven suites of Faculty spaces, conceived as stages on each student’s progress from year 7 to sixth form, each one home to an important central resource for use by the whole school.

A large open space, known as a Learning Exchange, forms the centrepiece of each faculty, located at a key node point so that each makes use of, reinforces and enhances the building’s natural characteristics a place where cross-curricular learning can be explored. Each Exchange can also be a pastoral base, providing homes for Year Groups; for Houses.

Five faculties will be designed around a new Exchange, each representing a pastoral base for one fifth of the cohort of years 7-11 (with 120 students in each). Two other faculty groups will focus initially on their specialist practical natures, centred around the Sports Hall and a new Activity Studio.

Each space will belong to a faculty framing the procession of spaces located at the formal heart of the school which will initially remain outside this structure, clearly defined as shared by all.

Service: Client Advisers
Location: Camden, UK
Client: LB Camden, Parliament Hill, William Ellis
Cost: £37.6m
Dates: 2009-2010

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