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Entwurf • Design OMA / Ellen van Loon, NL-Rotterdam
Grundriss Untergeschoss • Basement floor plan
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground floor plan
Grundriss 1. Obergeschoss • Floor plan Level +1
Grundriss 2. Obergeschoss • Floor plan Level +2
Schnitt und Ansicht • Section and Elevation
Bauherr • Client Brighton College, GB-Brighton
Standort • Location GB-Brighton
Nutzfläche • Floor space 7.425 m 2
Fotos • Photos Laurian Ghinitoiu, Killian O'Sullivan
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 118
SPORTS AND SCIENCES
BUILDING IN BRIGHTON
Brighton is often referred to as "London by the Sea": cos-
mopolitan, open-minded and being the most popular
seaside resort ever, the city impresses with the new
School of Science and Sports Building by OMA, inaugu-
rated in January. As expected, the Rotterdam-based of-
fice defies all conventions and defines a forward-looking
vision of educational spaces by linking two institutes.
W ith the new building, Ellen van Loon, partner at OMA, and the
project team headed by Carol Patterson not only realised
OMA's first sports building, but also the first school for secondary
education built by the architectural firm. Established in 1845, Brighton
College is one of the UK's elite schools and consists of a neo-Gothic
complex of listed buildings and a site on the edge of the playing field
with buildings from the 1970s and 1980s — the site of the new £55 mil-
lion project designed by OMA. The office was awarded the contract
after a competition organised in 2013. The College's Science School
needed to expand the number of its laboratories — at the same time,
a modern sports facility to promote talent and physical well-being
was desired. Originally presented as two separate projects, the brief
was revised and after a second competition phase, planning permis-
sion was finally obtained in 2015 and construction started in 2017. The
building impressively demonstrates the implementation of open, in-
formal working and learning spaces outside of the classrooms with
floor-to-ceiling glazing on both sides. In keeping with the rhythm of
the typical English terraced houses opposite, the science department
with its classes, laboratories and a greenhouse stretches across the
sports area below like bridge: gymnasium, indoor running track, a 25-
metre pool and a fitness and dance studio are located in the base-
ment and on the ground floor, with direct access to the lawn. Stimu-
lating social communications between the departments was central
in the concept: shifted levels and merging floors create surprising vi-
sual connections into and out of the dance room, into the pool area
and from above onto the indoor running track on the ground floor.
The rooftop offers an additional highlight: with the already omnipre-
sent and almost surreal-looking backdrop of the terraced houses op-
posite, a further running track and — if British weather permits — a
view as far as the North Sea, it offers sufficient space for outdoor clas-
ses and breaks. A college place costs around 46,000 euros a year —
without a school uniform, mind you. Eton must prepare itself.
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