A new resource for Hampton Court providing education facilities for visitors to the Palace
A specialist education facility for Hampton Court Palace - and the most significant building to be built there for more than 150 years – that would welcome in excess of 60,000 learners every year.
The Clore Learning Centre refurbished and found a contemporary use for the 17th century Barrack Block, extending it with a single storey teaching and exhibition space and integrating it with a highly significant historic landscape.
Our design draws lessons from the site characteristics, including the magnificent brick garden walls, the natural ventilation systems of the Barrack Block and surrounding historic structures such as the Henry VIII’s Tiltyard Tower and the famous brickwork, chimneys and roof-scape of the Palace itself. This results in an uplifting learning centre with a series of deep connections with its unique historic context.
In dialogue with the past, to speak to the future
Hampton Court Palace is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and development of this scheme required continuous and careful dialogue with English Heritage. The project demanded a thorough understanding of the historic site with a particularly sensitive approach to the design of this major new building which was funded by the Clore Duffield Foundation.
A new planting scheme takes inspiration from the site’s former use as a kitchen garden and the new building serves as a backdrop for a number of commissioned art installations. The sustainable design achieves low energy consumption through high insulation, natural ventilation and daylighting, assisted by harnessing the structure itself to create a zero U-Value wall.