Building Awards 2011 Public Building of the Year: Chelsea Academy

Chelsea Academy submitted by Feilden Clegg Bradley

Schools have endured a tumultuous year but Chelsea Academy proves beyond any doubt that they can still have the power to exhilarate, enthral and inspire. Situated in a dense residential area on a tight urban site and menaced by the brooding monolithic mass of Lots Road power station directly opposite, this is a building that might have been forgiven for turning inwards. But boldly and rightly, it does the exact opposite and enriches both itself and its neighbourhood in the process. Its confident massing squares up to the power station before hurtling downwards to relate to the two-storey terraces at the other end of the site. The simple articulation of clean horizontal and vertical lines on its facades allows for subtle manipulations of scale that are both monumental and domestic. And internal spaces are deployed as visual conduits that stitch urban views around and through the building together. All of which endows Chelsea Academy with a richness of character and diversity of form that renders it a virtually seamless extension of its urban fabric rather than an autonomous addition to it.

Each day in the lead up to the Building Awards ceremony next month, we will profile one of the finalists in the Project of the Year and Public Building Project of the Year. The winners will be announced as the Building Awards ceremony taking place on April 7. To book a table at the Building Awards visit the web site here.