St Helen’s School, Northwood – STEM Building

The school were keen to explore the crossover between science, technology, engineering and maths, to expand the girls’ ideas about possible careers.   Combining the science, maths and DT departments together into one building was the logical first step.

Further, by making the technology behind the new building visible, we hoped to inspire curiosity about the how it was put together and the skills that were required.

You can therefore see the structure in every room – whether it’s the visual concrete columns and beams, the concrete soffits in the workshops or the timber glulam roof beams at first floor. Junctions between the concrete and timber frame are expressed with steel plates and dowels. Exposed ductwork, services, lighting and suspended acoustic baffles were carefully coordinated to open-up teaching spaces and exhibit all the building services and inner workings.

The resulting building reinforces the importance of STEM within the school, and we hope expands the students’ horizons.

Very happy with IID who first helped us set our strategic vision in the context of a well-developed master plan and then delivered 2 impressive building projects simultaneously.  They worked collaboratively to overcome several challenges and have delivered what they promised – inspired design that also meets the operational needs of the School.

‘The building is an investment into the children’s learning. We are absolutely delighted, it’s a beautiful building’