Back to the Future

An elegant eaves detail by Allies & Morrison forges strong links between old and new hall structures at King’s College School in Wimbledon

Designed by Allies & Morrison, the new hall at King’s College School, London, is one of a few prominent structures –of which Banister Fletcher’s Great Hall (1899) is the grandest – around which the collegiate spaces are arranged. The visual link between the new and old halls suggested a relationship in composition and detail, writes Allies & Morrison. This relationship is exemplified in the new building’s eaves.

However, rather than adopt Banister Fletcher’s Victorian ornamentation, the new detail abstracts its formal components: parapet, buttress and coping. In an inversion of the nineteenth-century fondness for embellishment, the components of the new roof and wall are distinguished by their separation – by subtraction rather than addition.

Like those details found in its older neighbour, the new detail represents rather than expresses its construction. Although it reflects a simple, vernacular typology, it facilitates a sophisticated structural and environmental solution. The separate layers of the roof and walls indicate a lightness of construction, while accommodating not only generous insulation, but also a continuous plenum for delivering tempered fresh air to the hall. The latter supplements natural ventilation on exceptionally hot days.