RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools Award

The RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools Award was set up in 2007 in collaboration with the Royal Institute of British Architects. The award draws attention to the importance of good design in the school environment, and highlights the benefit of engaging with pupils in the brief and development processes.

The 2009 shortlist was particularly strong. Each scheme demonstrates unique virtues, ranging from an unprecedented level of consultation between architects and clients at the Minster School, to the visually arresting façade at Merchants’ Academy, the elegance and inventiveness at St Mary Magdalene Academy, and the high-impact, sustainable extension at Falmouth School.

Judges MJ Long of Long & Kentish Architects, Ryan Hawley from Garibaldi College in Mansfield, and Frances Sorrell, co-founder of the Sorrell Foundation, decided to award this year’s prize to the Minster School by Penoyre & Prasad after an extensive period of consultation. The judges felt that the Minster School works successfully on every level, serving the local community and its young people. The building clearly demonstrates the value of a positive relationship between the architects and the Head teacher, heads of department, local community and, most importantly, the pupils.

Other shortlisted schools for 2009

The RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools 2008 Award was won by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris for Westminster Academy in West London. The architects’ brief was to create a building that would support a curriculum in which every pupil could be responsible for managing his or her own learning. The design is based around a ‘market-place’ on the ground and first floors, physically connected to all the main communal spaces and visually connected to the whole school through the full-height atrium and colourful sculptured roof. A central staircase rises through the space, and wide corridors on each floor ease the foot-flow, with floor-to-ceiling glazing giving views across the interior and to the outside.

The 2007 Award was won by BDP (Building Design Partnership) for their work on Marlowe Academy in Kent. The brief was to create a modern, functional building that would help pupils achieve their potential and improve their marks, and that would also support an extended day and provide facilities that the local community could share. The design, on a level, open site, places the three teaching faculties, arts, science and humanities, in three curved wings, connected by a theatre where the whole school can gather. This top-lit arena with its timber-grid shell roof is the school’s ‘heart-space’, and its performance facilities are available for hire by community groups.