Evelyn Grace Academy

A cutting edge new Academy in Brixton, South London has not only achieved recognition as an outstanding and imaginative new build, but has also attracted attention due to receiving numerous prestigious awards including the RIBA Stirling Prize.

Designed by Zaha Hadid, the Evelyn Grace Academy is the first school ever to win the RIBA Stirling Prize 2011 for the best new European building built or designed in the United Kingdom. The build comprises a unique zig-zag design which is a mixture of steel and glass, which has been built in a very small urban space. Sport is one of the academy’s specialist subjects and in honour of this the design incorporated a 100 metre running track through the middle of the site, under a bridge between the two school blocks.

Designed as two schools, Evelyn and Grace, each comprising a Middle and Upper School, Billington Structures provided the structural steelwork. They constructed a single storey beam and raking column design at second floor level and a separate sports hall. The steel was erected on the second floor of the concrete formed lower building with beams located into concrete columns and exposed raking columns extending to both ground and first floor.