The project resolves two challenges on the school’s site: to update and co-locate science facilities to bring them up to a world-class standard; and to increase dining provision to cater for a larger school population.

A new teaching block housing labs will be built within the World Heritage Site with Grade I-listed surroundings and a rich archaeological history in an area of the Precincts called Mint Yard.

Skelly & Couch is contributing to:
• Provide new and refurbished, high-quality chemistry, biology and physics classroom laboratories, a new contemporary lecture space and associated staff and circulation areas
• Work within a UNESCO heritage site and listed buildings. The design sympathetically accommodates the flint and stonework of the new and existing façades. Careful consideration has been given to the provision of compliant mechanical ventilation from classrooms and fume cupboards within existing chimneys
• Improve the internal environment of all spaces, bringing them in line with good practice as far as practical within site limitations.

The new Science Building will create a state-of-the-art new physics department designed to provide natural ventilation wherever possible for adequate fresh air and to minimise overheating. This has been achieved through well-designed openings, coupled with the natural thermal mass of the building structure to passively cool spaces. A new basement to the lower ground floor of the Science Building requires careful design and construction owing to the immense archaeological significance of the site.

In addition to works on listed buildings, the site has multiple historic designations including Scheduled Ancient Monument, Conservation Area, Area of Archaeological Importance, as well as World Heritage Site.

This redevelopment is part of a group of commissions carried out by Skelly & Couch for the King’s School Canterbury during a long and successful association.