Springwood Junior School

Springwood Junior School

A junior school (originally built as a middle school) constructed between 1981 and 1982 by Hampshire County Council Architect's Department. The job architects were Mervyn Perkins and David White, with John Godding.

The building is formed from a wide-span timber portal frame with a sheet aluminium-clad roof. The plan is divided internally by walls of red brick running through the core, cedar-wood boarding, and glazed screens held in timber frames.

The building has a roughly rectangular footprint, only slightly longer than wide, with its long axis oriented approximately east-west. The entrance, hall, kitchen and administrative functions occupy the east end, the drama room sits at the west end, and classrooms extend along the north and south sides. Despite being single-storey, the building achieves a split in floor level along its east-west axis, with the north side lower than the south. Red brick walls, cranked and stepping up in height, run through the building and extend to either end, delineating this change in level.

Between the cellular classrooms along the north and south perimeter lies a sequence of communal spaces that flow from the upper level to the lower level. Internal rooms backing on to the classrooms were originally intended for practical activities; some have since been opened up to increase areas for informal teaching, and a small screened area has been created at the east end for semi-private work. At the very core, arranged linearly between the two levels, is a row of WCs with a mezzanine above housing the staff room and an open-sided resource area.

The exterior is dominated by the complex split profile of the vast roof, which projects at the eaves and verges. A south-facing ridge-light runs along its length, and splits in pitch to either side are infilled with continuous strips of glazing that bring light into the backs of the classrooms. The long elevations are articulated by cedar-boarded classroom stores alternating with the inset glazed walls of the classrooms, each with doors providing independent access into the school grounds. The end elevations are less tightly controlled, with areas of void beneath the roof shelter and brick volumes and lengths of wall spilling out from the centre; irregular gable ends above are infilled with glazing. The main entrance to the east is tucked beneath the roof and signposted by a cranked wall that guides from the original approach from the south-east, up a short flight of steps, and under the roof.

From an enclosed entrance lobby and foyer, past the administrative offices and hall, the interior opens up to reveal a dramatic, lofty space. The classrooms are slotted beneath the outer edges of the exposed portal frame, originally stained dark brown throughout, with the parts within the classrooms subsequently painted white. Classrooms are enclosed internally by glazed screens. A complex arrangement of internal clerestory lights and glazed strips within the roof slope bring light deep within the plan. Carpets, timber boarding and low, sloping ceilings lend domesticity to the classrooms, which are generously lit by both natural and artificial lighting. The open-plan spaces at the centre of the building have a harder finish, with clay pavers on the floor and greater reliance on artificial light from sodium lamps, though they benefit from the warmth of boarded softwood ceilings. Definition and formal complexity is given by the red brick walls threading through the centre, leading upwards as the stair balustrade for the mezzanine level and continuing out of the back of the building into the grounds to the west.

The principal alteration, beyond those already noted, is the overhead enclosure of the entrance lobby and foyer with glazing, which separates it from the hall, from which it was originally screened only by a section of red brick wall.