Brutalist London school to host UK's first brutalist architecture museum
Architecture studio Reed Watts is set to create the Museum of Brutalist Architecture as part of a wider renovation of the Grade II-listed Acland Burghley School in north London.
The Museum of Brutalist Architecture, which will be the UK's first brutalist architecture museum, will be a physical home for the digital archive of the same name established by Urban Learners and Acland Burghley School.
It will be built as part of a wider renovation of the school by Reed Watts, which will restore the school's assembly hall to its "original brutalist glory".
Named Hall for All, the project recently received funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The secondary school was originally completed in 1968 by architecture studio Howell Killick Partridge & Amis during a concrete-construction boom in the UK.
It comprises three concrete blocks, which are linked to the centralised assembly hall by an enclosed walkway, beyond which the museum is set to be located.
According to Reed Watts, its proposal is set to "celebrate the heritage of the building through sensitive renewal alongside contemporary adaption".
"Acland Burghley is an archetypal example of brutalist school building," the studio said. "The assembly hall at the heart of the school is the most explicit reflection of this approach and was conceived as a focal point for school life and the wider community."
Originally conceived as a focal point for the school, the concrete assembly hall has a hexagonal plan and was designed as a double-ended auditorium.
Updates to the space, which are expected to begin in April 2026, include the addition of a south-facing opening that will open up to a restored amphitheater.
Meanwhile, the hall's interior, which features a wood-clad ceiling and hexagonal skylight, will also be updated with newly-installed staging and seating space with a capacity of up to 300 people.
Accompanying this will be the creation of flexible backstage areas, revamped front of house facilities, and updated acoustics and lighting.
An underground earth duct passive ventilation system will be used to minimise environmental impact, and, according to the studio, is the project's single most expensive element.
Proposals for the Hall for All have been established alongside students, parents, and the local community and residents, with construction expected to begin next year.
Also in Camden, Reed Watts and local studio Allies & Morrison recently updated the Roundhouse, a famous concert venue, with wooden planks made from old railway sleepers.
In other architecture news, Material Cultures and Studio Gil have used biomaterials to create a community hub in London and Snøhetta has completed a community centre in a former quarry in Sweden.
The images are courtesy of Reed Watts.
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