OMA

BC Design Sport and Sciences Building . Brighton

OMA

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has been chosen by Brighton College to design a new building that will accommodate its Sport and Sciences departments. Emerging as a winner of an invited competition in 2013, the project was further developed and submitted for planning approval in July 2015.

In OMA's design, the two departments are combined into a linear building situated at the edge of the playing field. Primary sporting spaces are on level with the field, and the sports hall opens directly onto it. The Sciences department spans over the sporting spaces like a "skeletal" bridge. The façades are inspired in part by the regular rhythm of the terrace housing opposite the new building.
Inside, views from one department into the other make for lively and animated circulation throughout the new building, creating an unexpected interplay between Sport and Sciences. Established in 1845, Brighton College is a private, co-ed boarding and day school in Brighton, England, and over the years has cemented its reputation as one of Britain's leading schools. The campus is comprised of two areas: a historical quadrangle, composed of Grade II listed buildings designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and Sir Thomas Jackson in the 19th century; and the playing field lined with buildings from the 1970s and 1980s, the site of the new building.