Rambert School Weston Studio

MICA has completed a small but carefully designed extension to the Weston Studio for the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance on the School’s Violet Needham Chapel site in Twickenham.

Sited in the St Margaret’s Estate conservation area and within the flood zone of the adjacent River Thames, the project provides additional dance studio space for teaching and practice to accommodate increased student numbers. The project makes the most of the landscape setting, providing a room in the garden, improving the relationship between the existing studio and the garden, and providing access deeper into the landscape with improved accessibility for all. The architecture interprets the varied architectural language of the site to ensure that what is effectively an “extension of an extension” does not contribute to a patchwork of architectural proposals but a coherent contemporary building extending the locally listed chapel.

Stepping carefully to avoid trees which are characteristic of the conservation area and increasing the permeability of the garden, the landscape proposals improve the water diffusion capacity of the site, reduce runoff and actively contribute to flood protection with wet woodland planting proposed to complement this. The building facade curves to accommodate the roots of a large Red Oak to the east of the site. Full height ventilation panels to the east and west facades reduce the burden on the existing services, which were extended rather than replaced, by allowing controlled natural ventilation and purging of the studio space after classes.

A modest yet transformative intervention,

A strategic extension of an extension,

A room in the garden, with access deep into the landscape,

A carefully design wooden box with secret openings and concealed technical features,

A respectful and coherent elevation allowing the imposing chapel to dominate the street scene,

Taking cues from the existing buildings: a warm palette to complement the patchwork of architectural materials.

Making the most of the landscape setting:
Providing a room in the garden

The new building steps carefully around the existing trees on the site, which characterise the conservation area. The curve of the building at the north-east steps away from the adjacent trees and provides a sheltered spot at the corner of the building and a prominent corner for the piano within the studio. The glazed façade to the north elevation improves the relationship between the studio, and garden and public realm, providing access deeper into the landscape. Where additional built form is visible from the road, this is offset by additional planting adjacent to the garden wall. With the reducing height of the extensions, the imposing chapel dominates the composition of buildings facing the street.

The dance studio provides enlarged space for dance teaching, and the palette of materials used is restrained. The main timber structural elements are visible within the interior space, mediating the interior to exterior view and control views to the outside, reducing overlooking to adjacent homes to the north east of the site, directing views directly towards the garden. The architecture interprets the varied architectural language of the site to ensure that what is effectively an "extension of an extension" does not contribute to a patchwork of architectural proposals but a coherent contemporary building extending the locally listed chapel.

“The students are loving the new Weston which is now their favourite studio. It will have a lasting benefit for future generations of young talent at the School.”

– Rachel Tranter, Projects Manager Rambert School

Sustainability

As a small extension of an existing building completed within the last 20 years, the aspirations for the Weston Studio extension were to increase the capacity of the existing building without requiring significant replacement of the existing systems before the end of their useful life, and therefore minimising the carbon impact of the construction. The School provides exemplar dance training and as such requires a high-quality, controllable internal environment. Though the existing studio is heated using gas fired boilers, and cooled with mechanical ventilation, wholesale replacement of these systems with more efficient equipment would have had a significant carbon impact. The approach was therefore to extend the existing systems, replacing those parts which were end of life, and complementing the shortfall in equipment with alternative passive measures. Specialist assessments were therefore not suitable for a project of this type. New, sustainable equipment may be installed, when the existing equipment is replaced in future.

Thus, the building is a carefully oriented, highly insulated envelope carefully extending the existing services. Mechanical ventilation and underfloor heating was brought through from the existing building. Purge ventilation is used with acoustic absorption to make up the shortfall in the fresh air and cooling provision, whilst an acoustic louvre reduces sound transmission to the neighbouring gardens to the east.

Large areas of glazing are provided to the north elevation to reduce the artificial lighting capacity and reduce summer overheating. The glass is shaded at roof level and using vertical louvres to further reduce this effect. The new extension therefore succeeds in its aim of extending the usable area of the dance studio without requiring a significant increase in the energy requirements of the existing building.

Accessibility

The design of the Weston Studio extension and surrounding landscaping improves accessibility for all, providing level access from street level into both studios, and stepped access to the garden areas to the north of the site.

The existing site was constructed to standards which are no longer current, and though it was not obligatory to improve the existing situation, the project team established this as a requirement at the early design stage. The existing ramps to the studio exceeded current standards so these were replaced with routes which exceeded current standards (at a considerably lower gradient than required.)

The provision of ramps was complicated by the requirement to retain flood protection to the studio from the adjacent river, with the landscape acting as a barrier to protect the building. These competing requirements had to be carefully balanced in the design proposals.

The proposals also moved the front door of the studio to the west, closer to the road, reducing the travel distance from the public realm to the interior. Upgrades to doors were made to ensure that these could be operated by all.