| Summary : Smithdon School, a secondary school, was built in 1950-54 to the designs of Alison and Peter Smithson. It is constructed of a painted steel frame with buff sandlime brick infill and has a flat roof. The windows were originally of steel, without subframes, but now many of these have been changed to timber. It is two-storied but has single-storied workshops and kitchens to north. Compact and of an almost symmetrical rectangular plan, the school was built around two courtyards and has a central double-height hall spanning the two main ranges. All classrooms are glazed with obscured panels below cill height. The ground floor is of lower proportions than the upper floor. Between the main block and attached kitchen is a steel framed water tower with steel tanks. Conventional heating and fan systems were installed in 1990-1 and in the early 1980s the lower panes of each window assembly on each floor were changed to black sandwich panels and the windows set in wooden sub-frames. Smithdon School is considered to be an important building with innovative steelwork designed on the plastic theory. |
More information : The 1944 Education Act was an important catalyst for the arrival of the Welfare State in Britain, which in itself helped to bring Modernism to the fore during the post-war years. Within a decade of passing the Act, the government had built 2,500 schools. Among them was the secondary school at Hunstanton (often known as Hunstanton School), designed by the architectural couple, Peter and Alison Smithson. The Smithson's won the architectuiral competition in 1949 with a design of clarity, symmetry and modernity influeneced by the early phases of Mies van der Rohe's Illinois Institute of Technology Building in Chicago, 1939. The school has a steel frame which is itself technically advanced, being designed on the so-called plastic theory (engineers Ove Arup & Partners). It was originally conceived to completely glaze the frame which was initially done without sub-frames, so that the steel frame twisted, moved and corroded on its exposed site the glazing popped out or the glass just shattered (the Smithson's did not visit the site for the competition). The frame warps because on its entire welded length there are just two expansion joints. Moreover, the glass heated up the school like a greenhouse in summer and froze those inside in the winter. Conventional heating and fan systems were installed in 1990-1 and in the early 1980s the lower panes of each window assembly on each floor were changed to black sandwich panels and the windows set in wooden sub-frames. At the east and west ends are panels in gault brick, set into the projections of the I-section of the RSJs. Th facades are strictly symmetrical, although on the north (entrance) side single-storey kitchens, workshops, a craft room and the water tower mask the symmetry. The school marked a high point in the career of the Smithson's. Only the Economist Building of 1964 was as popular. (1-2)
Smithdon School, a secondary school, was built in 1950-54 to the designs of Alison and Peter Smithson. It is constructed of a painted steel frame with buff sandlime brick infill and has a flat roof. The windows were originally of steel, without subframes, but now many of these have been changed to timber. It is two-storied but has single-storied workshops and kitchens to north. Compact and of an almost symmetrical rectangular plan, the school was built around two courtyards and has a central double-height hall spanning the two main ranges. All classrooms are glazed with obscured panels below cill height. The ground floor is of lower proportions than the upper floor. Between the main block and attached kitchen is a steel framed water tower with steel tanks. Smithdon School is considered to be an important building with innovative steelwork designed on the plastic theory. (3) |