Castle View School / Nicholas Hare Architects

Architects: Nicholas Hare Architects
Location: Foksville Road, Canvey Island, England
Project Team: Essex County Council
Area: 10,125 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Alan Williams

Main Contractor: Skanska
Quantity Surveyor: Cost managed by Skanska
Structural Engineer: Arup
Services Engineer: Skanska
Landscape Designer: Macgregor Smith
Project Manager: Skanska

Castle View School is co-educational school for 1200 students aged 11-16. The project involved relocating the school to a busy town centre siteand creating a range of community facilities that would act as a beacon of education for the Island and a catalyst for further regeneration. The design includes two teaching wings, separated by a glazed central atrium and hall, which splay to create two separate external spaces, a protected courtyard on one side and a public square on the other. The simple material palette of timber and zinc set within an expressed brickwork frame establishes a civic quality.

‘Our new school building is a 21st century state of the art building that affords 1200 students at Castle View School the most inspirational and dynamic learning settings that enhance learning, teaching and attainment. Students embrace a calm yet exciting learning culture that new spaces, shapes and dimensions exude. It is a truly magnificent and first class building that our young people are very proud to have.’