St Paul's Girls' School, Garden Building

Established in 1904, St Paul's Girl's School is one of the UK's most respected senior independent schools. In 2011 John McAslan + Partners was appointed as strategic development advisor and architect for its estate in west London. Working closely with the School, JMP developed a masterplan for improving the School’s built environment and clarifying the complexities of its site, establishing a cohesive plan for a campus that works with existing architecture and addresses future development.

The 1,390m² Senior School hub (known as the Garden Building) provides new space for the School’s History and Geography Departments. The new building is constructed of pale limestone with a bronze-coloured metal ‘veil’ screening the upper level and providing depth to the fully glazed facades. Lower roofs are sedum covered and the upper roof is clad in photovoltaic panels. Sensitive to the surrounding architectural context, the Garden Building imaginatively delivers a significant amount of high standard additional teaching space within a complex and constrained site.

The practice has also designed and delivered a new sport complex for the School, which respects its residential neighbourhood while adding new high quality academic and sports facilities.