Little house in the playground

‘‘[The resulting structure is] a delightful distillation of the practical needs of the school, grounded in the place, and elevated by a playful architectural ambition to bring added value, far over the constraints of the budget and brief. If this is the future of school building, we have every reason to be optimistic …

…SCABAL’s School House points towards an alternative way of procuring buildings using local architects with an engagement in the place they are creating.’

Oliver Wainwright, Building Design, 3rd December 2010

SCABAL was appointed to design an after school club, nicknamed the School House, in the south east part of the playground of St. Elizabeth Catholic Primary School, Bethnal Green. The school is very successful both because of its high performance and its many social activities. The School House replaces an existing prefabricated building, as part of the school’s overall vision for its long term development.

A small house in the playground, its simplified appearance and scale reflects the form of children’s imagined houses. It has a distorted trapezoidal footprint with it’s made entirely out of timber with a huge north –facing roof light to flood inside with daylight.

Inside is a single open plan room under one lofty ceiling, leading high up to the rooflight and the sky above an inhabited two-storey island allowing many different activities to take place simultaneously. The island contains twopupil toilets, a disabled toilet, painting sinks, a staircase, akitchenette and a small office space. Analogous to a pileof toy building blocks, these rooms / facilities are located underneath a small mezzanine space for quiet play and story telling, close to the rooflight but with a grand panoramic view down to the main room.

The House makes the most of its direct connection with the external play area allowing it to become a fluid indoors/outdoors space. On the south west corner, a large sliding door allows the building to open up to the playground, when it’s warm enough to do so, dissolving the boundary between indoor and outdoor play.