Future Cities Forum Winter Awards 2026 - School Buildings
- Heather Fearfield
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
Image: The Performing Arts Centre, Brighton College, courtesy of Krft
In our schools category for Future Cities Forum's Winter Awards 2026, three arts buildings feature for the shortlist. They are The Performing Arts Centre at Brighton College, by architects Krft, the new Design Hub at Talbot Heath School in Bournemouth, by Western Design Architects with cost management from Ridge and The Rosalind Franklin Wing, at St Paul's Girls School, London, by Jestico + Whiles.
The Performing Arts Centre, Brighton College, Bournemouth
The Performing Arts Centre designed by Krft, is at the heart of the Brighton College campus, directly behind the historic Main Building by Sir Gilbert Scott. It unites the performing arts—dance, drama, and music—and mixes with social spaces for the Sixth Form and classrooms for English and computing. This unexpected mix reflects the College’s ambition to dissolve traditional boundaries and foster a learning environment where interests cross-pollinate.
Krft says:
'The project is the last puzzle piece of a 10 year masterplan to upgrade its campus facilities with new teaching, boarding and sports facilities. Its position – at the crossroads of all big thorough-ways of the campus, make it a pivotal meeting point for all students.
'To emphasize the historical core of the campus, we chose to set the building aside from the historical Gilbert Scott building. New views from the Home Ground and intimate alleyways and plazas appear in between the old and new.
'With this smaller footprint, the building leans out over the campus, expressing the theatre hall and creating curving gestures, a wink to its Neo-Gothic neighbour, that gives the sculptural volume a ‘dancing’ lightness.
'By lifting the theatre—the largest space in the building—an open and permeable public level emerges, opening up to all sides to the surrounding campus. Around this elevated theatre box, the interior unfolds as a generous, three-dimensional void that ties the different functions together. Large staircases cascade down to the studios and rise up to the theatre, while the central space hums with energy and sound. More than a circulation zone, it becomes a stage of its own: a lively foyer where people gather, meet, and pupils are both audience and performer in a everyday setting.
'The building is wrapped in a light veil, that makes a subtle gradient from darker to light, a hint to the nearby coastal cliffs of the English coast, just 500 metres away.
'The light, handmade brickwork is curving out over the campus, yet keeping the horizontal lining intact. This creates a pixelated texture playing with light and shadows and keeps the individual brick size present in the architecture.
The flint on the lower levels of the façade makes a connection with the surrounding neo-Gothic buildings on campus and references the vernacular architecture in the coastal region.
'The building forges a direct link between practice and performance. A fully equipped theatre hall and dedicated studios for dance and drama are complemented by generous social spaces where pupils can meet, rehearse informally, and exchange ideas. This encourages involvement in every aspect of the performing arts—whether acting, lighting, scriptwriting, or ballet.'
Image: Design Hub, Talbot Heath School, courtesy of Western Design Architects and Ridge
Design Hub, Talbot Heath School, by Western Design Architects and Ridge
Construction of a new Design Hub for Talbot Heath School in Bournemouth. The three-storey building includes a flexible 600-seat auditorium, gallery, exhibition spaces and studios for drama, art, textiles, graphic design and robotics. It also offers extensive breakout spaces for independent working. The hub incorporates an indoor pool with changing facilities for use by both the school and community clubs.
The school presented a unique brief based on its strong ethos which embraces Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics. The ‘STEAM’ ethos led to a collaborative design approach with Western Design Architects, which resulted in dynamic flowing spaces, art integrating with robotics, and the Junior School fully interacting with the Senior School.
The modern architectural structure offers a new statement centrepiece building for the school.
Ridge provided extensive cost management at the feasibility stage to inform the school’s development budget, including all fees, enabling works and client-direct contracts in respect of AV and virtual reality packages. A comprehensive cost plan was established from the outset and full cost reporting was provided during Stages 2-4, enabling the budget to be achieved.
Image: Rosalind Franklin Wing, courtesy of Jestico + Whiles
Rosalind Franklin Wing, St Paul's Girls' School, London, Jestico and Whiles
The Rosalind Franklin Wing at St Paul’s Girls’ School is a new typology for education, designed to prepare the next generation of female innovators and entrepreneurs for a changing world. The facility’s project-based learning model provides a dynamic and flexible environment for students to develop their creative problem-solving skills beyond the constraints of siloed subjects. The building combines sensitive architectural detailing and materials, which allow it to integrate into its historic surroundings, with a sustainable glulam structural frame and ventilation strategy.
Jestico + Whiles was commissioned by St Paul’s Girls’ School to develop an interdisciplinary, project-based learning space that would take the place of existing development on its historic west London site. The school sought an accessible, sustainable and future-facing building that would integrate sensitively into its historic surroundings, making the most of a tight, landlocked plot.
The architects say:
'The brief required flexibility at three levels: lesson-to-lesson, allowing staff to adapt teaching spaces; week-to-week, allowing a technician could adapt a space’s technical setup; and year-to-year, allowing changes to the building itself. The practice carried out extensive consultation with the school, wider community, and bodies including Historic England.
'The scheme combines a deep retrofit of an existing building with a new structure, built on retained foundations from earlier development of the site. Through the use of a glulam structural frame and cross-laminated timber infill panelling, 150 tonnes of embodied carbon was saved compared to a fully concrete or steel construction.
'The new building employs high quality materials including red brick, Portland stone and zinc, and sensitive contemporary interpretations of existing neighbouring buildings’ architectural features, including gable forms and chimneys. Internally, systems and materials are purposely exposed as teaching tools, exposing the next generation of environmental stewards to real and functional low-carbon design.
'The building, conceived as a centre of design and innovation, is designed to facilitate interdisciplinary, project-based learning. A central gathering space forms the heart of the building: a space for meetings, events, celebrations and exhibitions, from which all other principal spaces can be seen. Folding glazed screens can be retracted to create a free-flowing ground floor “learning landscape”, ordered loosely according to the level of supervision required.'
Overlooking the central space, the immersive theatre is designed to facilitate experimentation with AR and VR technology, and can be acoustically isolated to create a “black box” environment as well as offering performance, recording and projection facilities. Flexible space and virtual facilities allow the school to break down geographical barriers and work with educators nationally and internationally in a hybrid environment.
The building is adaptable to different ways of teaching and learning, and is equipped with the power and data capacity to support future technologies. It was conceived as a series of flexible spaces that can be closed off for quiet teaching and high-intensity study, or opened up to each other to facilitate collaboration and events.
Improving accessibility throughout the historic site was a key consideration. By aligning the new building’s floorplates with the main building, level access and smooth circulation is achieved between the two buildings via glazed links that provide a continuous concourse. A new partnership entrance allows external visitors direct, secure and step-free access to the CDI, supporting the school’s community outreach work and making it easier to welcome guests and host events.
The project is part of a wider masterplan developed by the practice that also includes a new staff hub building and refurbishments to the school’s existing listed buildings.
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