The Winchester, Exeter and London-based practice landed the commission for the historic private school ahead of an undisclosed shortlist following an invited competition.
According to the practice, the building will be the largest new development yet at the main site at Emanuel School’s main Battersea Rise site and forms part of its ‘sequenced critical build programme’ which aims to provide ‘outstanding facilities across all subject areas’.
In 2019 Tim Ronalds Architects completed a masterplan for the school to guide its development over the following decade.
Design Engine founding director Richard Jobson said: ‘This is a fantastic project which will involve innovative solutions to deliver while ensuring the school can continue to offer the students the best possible educational experience. We can’t wait to get started!’
Initial designs include a ‘large light-filled’ eating area on the ground floor, which can double-up as an assembly space. Classrooms, computer/coding rooms, and science labs will be created on the upper floor of the new block.
Design Engine said the new building would create a ‘first-rate science space reflecting the talents of the pupils and staff, as well as providing natural collaboration across these subjects and others’.
Design Engine Architects has been chosen to design a new science building for Emanuel School in south London
Source:Design Engine Architect
Emanuel School was founded in Westminster in 1594 before moving south of the river in 1883. Today, it teaches children aged between 10 and 18 years old.
Design Engine has worked on a number of educational and academic buildings, including a science and mathematics facility for Charterhouse, a private school in Surrey, completed in 2018. The project won an RIBA South East award the following year.
In July, it won planning for a new accommodation block at Oxford University’s St Hilda college, which has proven controversial because it involves the demolition of an existing building.
