Djanogly City Academy

The “Djanogly City Academy” is a school with space for over 800 students. Despite the Academy’s inner-city location and close proximity to a major road, the site is dominated by green space. The building is on the edge of Forest Recreation Ground, which once formed part of the ancient Sherwood Forest, and to the rear of the Academy, the former school was demolished to create playing fields. The Academy’s design exploits this natural setting, with full height glazing to draw the landscape into the building and wide terraces, sheltered by a canopy of brisesoleil.

A simple rectangle on plan, the teaching spaces extend from a long central atrium, bounded at each end by double-height spaces, containing a restaurant, entrance hall, library and internet café. Breaking down the scale of the Academy into three ‘houses’, the elevated balconies define self-contained units, each with its own resource area and staff room. The theatre and sports facilities are grouped together in the east of the building, away from the teaching areas, to allow easy out-of-hours use by the local community. Classroom doors are glazed and an installation of coloured panels by artist, Sophie Smallhorn runs through the main circulation route, between each structural bay. The steel frame encloses a glass facade and internal walls are non load-bearing, so can be moved in future to suit changing requirements.