Forest School

Hayward Smart were appointed to prepare designs for a new sports pavilion for Forest School, an independent day school in north-east London.

The school’s primary sporting pitches are located away from the main buildings, meaning the expanding pupil population must change and then walk through adjacent woodland to get to the heart of sporting activities. Existing facilities are becoming no longer fit for purpose.

Through an intensive brief development process and engaging with the local authority, a proposal was brought together that will provide the school not only with improved changing facilities, but also teaching rooms to support outdoor learning and flexible meeting & function spaces. The dynamic form of the building addresses the playing pitches whilst responding to the brief, immediate site and surrounding area, providing a flexible and secure environment for all users. The facility will enable the school to expand their outreach programmes and provide facilities for local community use.

The building will adopt a fabric first approach to ensure high thermal performance with natural light maximised into key spaces through large areas of glazing. Walling materials will include facing brick to match examples in the local area alongside natural timber weatherboarding, under metal standing roofs.