Space-age school classroom pod must be saved from demolition

Imagine being taught successful a schoolroom that was similar thing from Star Trek. Or, I don’t know, similar the Media Centre astatine Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Well, funnily enough, pupils astatine Grey Court Secondary School successful Ham, Richmond-upon-Thames were taught a miniature mentation of the Media Centre, and designed by the aforesaid architects arsenic that Stirling Prize winner: Future Systems.

Called the Ingenium Classroom Pod, it has hosted students since it was designed successful 2004 and has been called a ‘B-movie alien spaceship’ and an ‘oversized iPod’. Now though, this beloved schoolroom is facing demolition, arsenic it indispensable marque mode for a caller schoolroom artifact since the schoolhouse has accrued from 500 to 1600 pupils implicit the past fewer years.

The10m x 16m pod has besides fallen into a authorities of unrepair.  

However, the Twentieth Century Society, which campaigns to prevention outstanding buildings and design, are calling retired for idiosyncratic to find it a caller home. Clearly, it has imaginable to beryllium renovated and enactment to caller purpose, but things person to hap accelerated arsenic its owed to beryllium torn down by 20th December.

Oli Marshall, Campaigns Director astatine the Twentieth Century Society says, “Sports pavilion? Ice-cream parlour? Park café? Art gallery? Tourist info centre? With a small imagination, there’s ample re-use imaginable for this miniature modern classic.”

The pod was built arsenic a aviator task for the ‘World Classrooms of the Future’ programme successful 2003-04, funded by the Department for Education during the New Labour government. Each schoolroom was designed by a antithetic designer to fulfil the circumstantial school’s contiguous needs.

The little was to supply a amended situation for teaching and learning, by diverting immoderate of the funds that were past going into modernising and renewing older schoolhouse gathering stock, to put successful exemplary caller facilities acceptable for the future.

Future Systems was an innovative London-based architectural and plan practice, founded successful 1979 and led by Jan Kaplický and Amanda Levete. In summation to the Lord’s Media Centre, Future Systems is possibly champion known for the Selfridges Birmingham store (2003) successful the city’s Bullring buying centre, clad with 15,000 anodised aluminium discs, said to person been inspired by a Paco Rabanne dress.

Their buildings person been called ‘blobitecture’ for their integrated and aerodynamic shapes, made imaginable done the advent of computer-aided-design successful architecture. Future Systems dissolved successful 2009 pursuing Kaplický’s death, with Levete going connected to recovered her ain palmy practice, AL_A.

The Ingenium pod schoolroom was prefabricated from modular GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) components utilizing semi-monocoque boat-building technology, and was designed to beryllium dismantlable and relocatable.. The usage of suspended circular acoustic discs, integrated with the high-level earthy ventilation openings, ensured that the due acoustic situation was achieved. The portion is besides equipped with a self-contained toilet, cloakroom and services area.

“Future Systems were 1 of the existent ‘starchitect’ practices of the 90s and 00s yet had comparatively fewer built-projects,” Marshall says, “So this is an exceedingly uncommon accidental to get an original. But prospective caller owners volition request to determination fast: the extremity of word signals the extremity of the roadworthy for this peculiar pod. Are you the close organisation oregon idiosyncratic to springiness it a 2nd chance? Get successful touch!”