21 July 2022 · By Fran Williams. Photography by Nigel Jarvis
The practice’s £6.25 million centre for Worth School, a Catholic and Benedictine private school in West Sussex, includes a library and multi-purpose hall
The new building also contains social and study spaces for the school’s growing sixth form. It is designed to be of a similar scale to adjacent buildings, which are two storeys high.
The scheme incorporates a new landscaped quad at the heart of the school, which gives more focus to the surrounding teaching buildings. Tim Ronalds Architects won the commission for the building in 2019.
Its profile gives precedence to the larger sixth form study and social spaces on the first floor, facing east into the school with the façade expressing these spaces via tall windows extending the full length of the building.
By contrast, the classrooms on the west elevation are more modest in height. A ground-floor library and multi-purpose space stand either side of the main entrance. Generous ceiling heights provide well-proportioned daylit spaces.
The rest of the building is laid out to minimise corridors and provide better connectivity between teaching spaces.
Externally, materials take inspiration from the school's listed Tower Building, on to which the sixth form building faces. Red brick is complemented by golden-toned pressed metal detailing and windows with shutter panels.
The building has been designed to be very low energy. CLT construction and a highly insulated envelope minimise both heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. The scheme also uses the school’s biomass district heating system, while all teaching spaces apart from the multi-purpose space are naturally ventilated. This strategy include cross-ventilation and rooflights at first-floor level.
Spaces are designed to maximise daylight while limiting solar gain to create bright spaces in which to learn and work.
The structure is exposed cross-laminated timber (CLT) on the ceilings. Internally, walls are plastered and combined with ash joinery and wall panelling to create a robust, warm interior with good soundproofing and acoustics.
The lightweight nature of the timber superstructure resulted in shallow, strip footings. Heavier forms of construction would have resulted in deeper foundations, increasing the embodied carbon. Exposing the timber superstructure minimised finishes and associated embodied carbon as well.
Embodied carbon calculations were carried out by the engineer showing that the timber superstructure will store nearly 250,000kg of carbon throughout its design life of 60 years. Ben Burley, project architect, Tim Ronalds Architects
Worth School is part of the Worth Abbey Estate. The estate stretches to 200ha and includes farmed woodland. The exposed cross-laminated timber structure of the Spencer Building echoes the beautiful exposed structure of the 1960s Grade II-listed abbey church, and this helps preserve our connection with the abbey and our Benedictine heritage.
The Spencer Building is the most wonderful building I have ever worked in. It perfectly combines tradition and modernity in both methods and style. It has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. The atmosphere the building creates is exceptional. From the moment it opened, the students naturally settled to calm industry, energetic collaboration and happy sociability, depending on the space they inhabited. The light, acoustics and materials all come together to create spaces that are inspiring, energising and uplifting. The upper floor and the reading room, in particular, are a true centrepiece of our school now, a symbol of academic aspiration. The building perfectly speaks to our motto ‘so that all have something to strive for’. I feel it heralds a new era of innovation and creativity at Worth. Alice McNeill, deputy head academic, Worth School
Start on site September 2020 Completion date March 2022 Gross internal floor area 1,258m² Form of contract Traditional Construction cost £4.3 million Construction cost per m2 £3,400 (including external landscaping) Architect Tim Ronalds Architects Client Worth School Structural engineer Price & Myers M&E consultant Max Fordham Acoustic consultant Ramboll Quantity surveyor Synergy Project manager Synergy Main contractor W Stirland
Operational performance data is not yet available from the services engineer. It has only been open three months but the building is being monitored and reviewed monthly through the first year to collect data
Tags Schools Tim Ronalds West Sussex
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