The Challenge
The brief was to deliver the Cognita Purpose “to create an inspiring world of education”.
As part of the design team, it was Syntegral's role to help deliver the Cognita and Senior Leadership Team’s mission to be the ‘best prep school in London’. Given the constraints of the listed buildings, originally four terraced townhouses, the challenge was embraced to create one School.
The location is enviable, unlike any other school in the country, the V&A, Science, and Natural History museums are just a five-minute walk away, providing flexible learning outside of the school’s demise.
The Solution
The main areas of consideration for the design were historic preservation and space constraints. Working closely with the architects, Syntegral developed the new MEP routing to preserve the original features and aesthetics of the buildings. With the limited space for MEP infrastructure and to improve energy efficiency, natural passive ventilation was utilised where possible.
Renewable heating is provided by Imperial College London’s central CHP district system. The CHP plant is one of the largest in London, helping to achieve energy efficiency for the historic building.
