Sean Spurr
Ark Schools has submitted plans to redevelop the Ark Swift Primary School on Australia Road in White City. The development will see a replacement school constructed, alongside a nursery, 132 flats, adult education centre, cafe and a 9 storey office building.
The site is located on the the White City Estate and next to recent office-led developments. As such the largest building proposed is for office usage rather than residential. This tops out at 9 storeys.
Further buildings of 8 storeys, 7 storeys and two 5 storey buildings will contain residential flats above the other uses such as the replacement school.
Sheppard Robson are the architects for the scheme, and have chosen a restrained palette of light-grey brickwork and GRC cladding, alongside bronze metalwork.
Redevelopment of schools to provide updated facilities with residential above, and creation of new schools below flats, has become an increasingly popular way of subsidising school development in recent years in the capital. These have included a new school off the Old Kent Road below a tower, as well as several schemes in Hackney.
