Norfolk House School

c p

r a a r t

w f n e r

o r s h i

d p

norfolk house school extensions

norfolk house school, muswell hill, north london

Norfolk House is a small school in Muswell Hill serving the local communities of Muswell Hill, Crouch End and Highgate. The school has a long and distinguished history and has been located on Muswell Avenue since 1896.

Crawford Partnership have worked with the school on two occasions to dramatically improve the school’s facilities. The ďŹ rst scheme, for a new dining hall, has been completed, with a second scheme, for a new science lab and library, having achieved planning permission with construction expected to take place in Summer 2009.

phase 1_new dining hall

Crawford Partnership was commissioned by Norfolk House Preparatory School to provide a new dedicated dining hall extension on the rear of the existing school along with a loft conversion, both to gain badly needed additional space. To avoid any disruption to the school curriculum, all building works needed to be completed within the 6 weeks school summer holidays of 2006.

phase 1_new dining hall The school is in a Conservation Area and negotiations on planning permission were undertaken earlier in the year working closely with Haringey’s Planning and Conservation Team. Because of the tight programme, a decision was made in advance to look at either a modular unit for the Dining Hall extension which could be made off site as one complete unit and craned into place, or optionally a prefabricated panel system that could be delivered and assembled in situ. Restrictions within the main street led to a panel system being selected.

phase 1_new dining hall The new timber structure is constructed from MMC ‘Kerto’ sandwich panels with 200mm of ‘Warmcel’ recycled newspaper insulation blown into the cavity to achieve a ‘u’ value of 0.2 w/m2. The entire structure is clad in vertical red cedar boarding and is also provided with a ‘sedum’ green roof.

Windows which have been painted in the school colour, have been designed so that children can see out comfortably when sitting at the tables, and are low ‘E’ double glazed engineered units with argon filled cavity. During the works, the playground area was also resurfaced with an all weather finish and a timber deck structure connecting the main school to the Dining Hall.

exterior view with stepped seating bordering play area

new dining hall interior

phase 2_library & science lab Having successfully completed phase 1 of the works, Norfolk House approached Crawford Partnership to develop another extension to provide a new library and science lab for the school.

The proposals involve the demolition of the existing rear single storey admin office and replacement of it with a new two storey extension. The proposal also seeks to add a first floor extension above the side main entrance, which is to be set back in-line with the adjoining property.

Crawford Partnership have successfully gained planning permission for the development, with work expected to start in summer 2009.

phase 3_basement The subterranean extension is designed to add space to the property whilst preserving the scale of the building and minimising the impact of the proposed works. From a planning and conservation point of view - the design of the basement has been carried out very carefully in order to bring light down into the newly created space without compromising the above ground front elevation of the school. To achieve this, a lightwell has been proposed at the front.

roof height

+ 13097 + 12530

+ 6908

+ 3737

+ 1562

ground floor

+/- 0

Muswell Avenue

playground level

Lightwell

- 1053 Moveable Partition Wall

proposed basement level

- 3300

phase 3_basement The basement will house a new large dining hall and a kitchen for school dinners. The large dining hall has a movable partition, which allows the space to be divided to create large classrooms for subjects such as drama.

B

12 Muswell Avenue

52.68 m 2

Lightwell

Kitchen 11.95 m2

Dinning Hall 78.14 m2

Total basement floor area.

2

W/C

117.76 m

7.69 m2

7

8

9

10

12

13

14

6.81 m2

11

A 15

A 6

5

4

3

2

1

Moveable Partition Wall

172.52 m2

Lightwell

24.67 m2

Store Room 8.91 m2

24.95 m2

testimonial “I’ve been delighted with the extensions we had last summer.

The new dining hall has given us flexibility to accommodate larger groups of children and without question has improved the level of education we can offer. I’m so pleased with the design of the new hall; the cedar wood construction with sedum roof makes the building inviting and warm for our children.

The loft conversion has enabled us to take pressure off the main school building, which always felt a little cramped. The new state of the art staff room is a welcomed place for our teachers to relax (the views from the staff room are truly spectacular) and because we have more space we were able to create a new art room and music room which has greatly enhanced our art and music curriculums.”

Mark Malley Headmaster, Norfolk House School

c r a w f o r d p a r t n e r s h i p Crawford Partnership was established in 1997 as a design-led architectural and interior design practice.

We are enjoying an increasing workload with many new and exciting design commissions both in the UK and overseas.

Our projects are driven by a clear and concise design philosophy that is concerned with maximising opportunity to create interesting spaces and forms that combine dramatic use of materials and light. We address issues of sustainability, energy efďŹ ciency and modular prefabrication from the outset of the design process.

1a muswell hill london N10 3TH www.crawfordpartnership.co.uk e: info@crawfordpartnership.co.uk tel: 020 8444 2070 fax: 020 8444 1180