Lord Wandsworth College: Science Centre

The new science centre building at Lord Wandsworth College, Hampshire, was designed as part of wider masterplan proposals to rationalise the existing campus with a landscape-led urban design strategy.

The building is designed to provide new science laboratories for secondary school children and 6th formers. Many of the existing buildings on the campus are brick-built with generously proportioned tiled roofs incorporating mansards. The science block design draws from these proportions through the emphasis of the roofscape. The use of modern zinc panels in a tonal red-brown is sympathetic to the weathered tiles on adjacent roofs.

The laboratories require significant ventilation to cater for fume cupboards and the use of Bunsen burners for chemistry in particular. This is expressed in the zinc-clad ventilation stacks that divide up the roofscape. Driven by sustainable design principles, the building features clerestory windows at high levels, allowing light and ventilation into the central atrium.

The science centre creates a new courtyard flanked by old and new phases of development that reflect on each other without imitation. The landscape-led masterplan creates a tree-lined boulevard and open vista through the length of the building and out to views of the open countryside beyond.

Lord Wandsworth College Science Centre view from the courtyard
Lord Wandsworth College Science Centre view of the side of the building
Lord Wandsworth College Science Centre view of the staircase looking at the entrance
Lord Wandsworth College Science Centre view from the corner of the entrance looking out to the courtyard
Lord Wandsworth College science classroom
Lord Wandsworth College rearview of the science centre