The King’s School, Canterbury has a complicated estate within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Canterbury Cathedral. With listed buildings galore - some dating back to the medieval era - and scheduled ancient monuments, weaving a new building into the mix was no mean feat.
The school wanted to co-locate and modernise science teaching facilities. This meant upgrading laboratories in the Grade II listed Parry Hall and providing state-of-the-art laboratories in the new Rausing Science Centre.
The new building replaces a '70s day house, which was less sympathetic to its context and unsuited to being converted for science teaching (its occupants moved to the new Mitchinson's, completed in 2018). We kept to its footprint. The basement depth was increased to give the necessary ceiling heights and ensure everything fitted within the original footprint. By removing extensions, we also opened a previously ungenerous entrance to the Cathedral precincts.
The choice of materials evolved through conversations with Historic England and the school. King’s wanted the new building to be crisp and contemporary, but belong in its sensitive historic context, hence the choice of flint, stone and red clay tiles. The cladding is random snapped quarried flint, with occasional horizontal bands of square knapped flint, which help to break up the elevation and provide rhythm to the elegant facade.
Having developed in a piecemeal fashion, there were hardly any sizeable spaces where the school could host large functions, lectures or meetings. Now, on the ground floor, they have a flexible space that can accommodate 120 people, but can also be subdivided into two teaching spaces.
The project involved close collaboration with the school community, Historic England, the Cathedral Fabric Commission for England, Canterbury Cathedral’s Fabric Advisory Committee and local planners. Thirteen scheduled ancient monument applications were submitted, and there were six phases of development so that the school could operate effectively and safely throughout.
