Lunchtime special

摘要

This project, a refectory for Ibstock Place School in Roehampton, all started with a sketch by Richard Lavington which broke down the brief into three simple attached volumes: a kitchen, a servery and a dining hall. 'It's a once-in-a-career project,' explains associate and project lead Tom Waddicor. 'The school loved the concept and wanted it to be built as it was conceived. The work was in delivering the detail.' And this is what Maccreanor Lavington has done in a very undistracted and precise way. Ibstock Place School is a co-educational private school in south-west London which runs through from nursery to sixth form, and the new building provides lunch for all years. The school is split across two sites diagonally opposite from each other over a main road, next to the Alton Estate on one side and Richmond Park on another. One site is primarily for the sports fields, the other is for teaching. The school was founded in 1894 in Kensington but moved in 1946 to occupy the house and grounds of an elegant 16-bedroom Edwardian mansion designed by Frank Chesterton and completed in 1913. The house still provides the entrance and main school building, set back from the road, while the rest of the buildings are set out around the original landscaped gardens to the rear with an indoor swimming pool in the position of the original 1920s outdoor pool. Buildings cluster between and around an orchard which slopes away from the house's terrace. 'It's a landscape-focused campus,' says Waddicor. Department buildings nestle between existing trees, with pupils crossing the grass to their next lessons, under the blossom in spring.