Bishop Challoner School
The existing school occupied a tight, inner city site located adjacent to the Docklands Light Railway, in London’s East End. The masterplanning of the site involved a phased consolidation of the temporary boys’ school and long-standing girls’ school into one collegiate campus, with associated enhancements to the public realm.
Grontmij’s approach explored a fresh language for the design of external spaces, concentrating on informal/social ‘courtyard’ spaces defined by trees and benches, and softened by extensive shrub planting. A key focus of the brief was to develop a sensitive response to the division of boys’ and girls’ play areas and this was achieved by carefully integrating a large, sculptural raised planter filled with multi-stemmed birch trees.