The accommodation for the new Academic Centre is arranged on ground and first floor around a central covered courtyard which acts as a focus of the building.

The arrangement on the site (after the existing Physics building has been cleared) is dictated by the surrounding buildings and existing site routes. The internal courtyard is seen as the “heart” of the building and is criss-crossed by routes to and from the adjacent parts of the School.

The School’s brief dictated three main room sizes: large lecture hall and courtyard, large science laboratories and smaller science labs/classrooms. Arranging these spaces in an efficient manner on the relatively tight site generates three parallel strips of accommodation that can be read clearly in the building form.

Although the new building will be physically connected to the existing Emms Block, it was not thought suitable to follow the parameters set by this building. On the two elevations where these meet a smaller “link” is used as an architectural device to resolve the relationship between the different geometries.

Although the new building borrows in texture, general form and scale from the original Cranleigh buildings it will be recognisably contemporary in its detail and use of materials. Steep pitched roofs give the building a strong external identity and provide airy and lofty interiors.