BDP was appointed to design the new Hampden Gurney School, a six-storey Church of England school in the City of Westminster for 240 pupils aged 3½ - 11, which replaces a former school on the site built in the 1950s. BDP was also commissioned to design an associated residential development on the site. This 6,000 m2 development consists of 52 apartments in two six-storey L-shaped blocks which occupy the former school’s play area. Profits from the sale of the apartments will fund the construction of the new school. Since the residential blocks take up much of the original play area, the challenge for the design team was to maintain the statutory amount of play area in a six-storey school on a constricted site. The solution they decided upon was to raise the school and create a covered play area on each level open to the fresh air, and separated from the teaching areas by a bridge across the central lightwell. The school is created on six levels, with the classrooms on three levels above the new ground floor nursery, and a group teaching room on the roof. Children “move up” the school as they progress through the years. The school also includes an administration area, library and multimedia room, with the hall, music room, chapel, and drama rooms at lower ground floor level. The school has a steel frame crowned with an arched truss at 4th floor level covered by a tensile roof, creating a large communal teaching space free from columns. The outer envelope is brick and glass balustrading forms the curve of the playdecks. Construction began in July 2000 and the School was completed for the start of spring term 2002. The School won a RIBA Award for Architecture the same year, and was also shortlisted for the Stirling Prize.