World Class Education
MICA is an award winning practice working in the UK and internationally across architecture, heritage and landscape projects. We work at all scales and levels, from urban design to individual buildings, interiors and furniture, designed for long term institutional sustainability. MICA have extensive experience in the briefing and design of educational buildings. We work collaboratively to create co-authored designs, which are context specific innovative, efficient and highly sustainable. Our personal approach has enabled us to create enduring partnerships with our clients to create award winning buildings and masterplans which consistently exceed expectation and continue to be valued. We have considerable successes designing within complex settings and parameters. Our range extends from pre- school to higher education, and this, combined with our experience and site knowledge, means we are best placed to ensure best outcomes for our clients. We are pleased to enclose this brochure of our long, strong track record of work in schools to create inspiring and uplifting environments for living and learning.
We are a team of 22 qualified architects within a wider group of around 30 people. We are industry leaders in designing exemplary low energy masterplans and developments in complex settings, including both the earliest and largest Passivhaus developments, carbon negative structures and recently the ‘greenest’ building of its kind in Oxford.
Affiliations Practice Partners W Programme Paradigm Network Architects Declare signatory Advocates of Low Energy transformation Initiative (LETI) Advocates of RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge New London Architecture, Partners Accreditations RIBA Chartered Practice RIBA Specialist Conservation Architect Registered Architect, State of New York Certified Passivhaus Designer LEED Building Design and Construction Accredited Professional UKAS ISO 9001, 14001, 45001 B Corp, Pending
We are signatories for RIBA 2030 4
MICA
Services offered:
Cities Streets Buildings Paths Spaces Parts
Architecture Masterplanning Urban Design Conservation Architecture Landscape Design Estate Decarbonisation Planning Deep Energy Retrofit Adaptive Reuse Interior Design Model Making Passivhaus Design Planning Support Strategic Advice + Consultancy Graphic Design BIM + BIM Management
From our London offices we have infrastructure in place to work across the world and have previously established local project teams for international cultural and education projects. We have established working relationships with reliable architect practices, and look forward to making new connections in the future. Our office employs a diverse group of individuals from around the world, with registered architects across five different countries. In addition to MICA’s strategic masterplanning for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, our team is working in Pune,India to deliver a major new college complex for Wellington College International, and also have early stage education college projects in the Middle East, Japan, and Nigeria.
United States of America Virginia Museum of Fine Arts New York Public Library New York Natural History Museum Peabody Essex Museum, Boston Baton Rouge, Louisiana Far East + Oceania Manila Mayoral Delegation Museum of Western Australia, Perth Wellington College International, Pune Internationally in the UK Olympicopolis, London Peking University, Oxford 6
MICA
International Clients
Independent Schools Stowe School Cheltenham Ladies’ College Bede’s School Dragon School Rambert School Wellington College Wellington College International St Paul’s School Oxford Colleges Corpus Christi College Hertford College Keble College Jesus College Mansfield College Nuffield College Peking University Pembroke College The Queen’s College Peking University Oxford Brookes University Christ’s College, Cambridge King’s College, London University of Lancaster Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn
8
MICA
Education Clients
World-class education
10
MICA
The major new education campus for Wellington College International, accommodating 800 pupils from nursery to sixth form. The Junior School completed and opened in 2023. The new school is located in Pune and recalls the grandeur of the original Wellington College buildings in Berkshire with brick and stone arches and cloistered and courtyard spaces. Formal and informal at the same time, it reinterprets these characteristic features for a 21st century context and for the local climate and conditions, to create a contemporary, but timeless and enduring building embodying the ethos of Wellington College for future generations.
12
MICA
Wellington College International Pune, India
14
MICA
Wellington College International Pune, India
Arranged side by side the school comprises five main compositional elements. Running east to west the complex of buildings comprise the nursery, early years and junior school; the auditorium and dining block; the central square and arched administration block; the multi-purpose hall and swimming pool block; and finally the senior school block. Each element has a level of independence and individuality while being connected to and part of a larger whole, giving character and distinctiveness to the whole composition. This arrangement also allows a phased construction approach, allowing the site to develop from the east, where it is accessed from the city.
Entry
Senior School
Black box theatre
Drop-Off Exit Library
Reception
Junior School
West Cloister
Central Square
East Cloister
Cafe
Exit
Entry
16
MICA
Wellington College International Pune, India
To support and inform Wellington College’s decision making process, a 25 year estate development strategy was prepared by MICA to identify and explore potential development site. A range of new flexible buildings and spaces have been identified in relation to sports, performing arts, accommodation, teaching, alongside new typologies in support of social interaction and informal learning. Strategic investment in the College site wide infrastructure include new low carbon solutions, improved visitor access, and the creation of a series of new character areas to improve daily life at the College. Existing zones and Uses 1. Old Laundry Site 2. Wellesley Quad and Queen’s Court 3. Music School 4. Laundry and IT 5. Science 6. Salassie Courts 7. Raglan House 8. Grounds Sheds, Turf, College, Shop, Dance
7
8 SCIENCE CLUSTER
SPORTS CLUSTER
STAFF CLUSTER
MIXED USE BOARDING/ SUPPORT CLUSTER
5
4 BOARDING CLUSTER
STAFF CLUSTER
BOARDING CLUSTER
SOCIAL CLUSTER
3
6
ARTS CLUSTER
2
1
Uses Key Common Accommodation Sports Staff Accommodation Support Academic Performing Arts Mixed Use
STAFF CLUSTER
SPORTS CLUSTER STAFF CLUSTER
Woodland Quad new boarding and accessible landscape (Currently on-site)
Wellbeing Centre (currently in design development)
18
Sixth Form Hub (currently on-site)
MICA
Landscape Estates Wellington College
The Kilometre/ Byron Drive
Main Entrance
Main College
South Front
Chapel
Old Laundry Buildings
Application site Armoury Cottages
Long term strategic site masterplan
CCF stores with accompanying enabling buildings
for Wellington College, which identifies key development sites for a 25 year development programme, in spacious wooded grounds of 400 acres in and CCF Parade around the original Grade 1 listed Grounds/ Fields Victorian school campus.
Hidden from the historic south front the Old Laundry site offers a unique experience for the College in bringing forward new boarding and day facilities. Sensitively integrated into the woodland setting that enhance connections across the College. The boarding house is for both boys and girls with 70 beds with shared facilities, entrance staff, common space in the centre and flanked by a wing of boys and a wing of girls. The buildings are arranged around the perimeter of the site - creating a central woodland quad which brings the landscape into the lived setting and offers biodiversity enhancements
Terrace
HM
AHM
Terrace
Main Stair
Upper Common Rooms
Second
CLT construction
First Social study space with views to landscape
Ground 20
Study bedroom
MICA
A new woodland quad Wellington College
Wellington College Woodland Quad
A new pastoral and Wellbeing Centre situated on the edge of Wellington College’s historic estate, provides a rare opportunity to create modern, high quality purposed built centre to support pupils in a holistic setting. 22
MICA
Student Wellbeing Wellington College
To accompany the College’s vision to best prepare their students for further education MICA have design a new sixth form centre which co-locates a café, informal and formal study spaces, seminar rooms plus ‘drop in’ tutor spaces. The goal of this building is to give Sixth Form somewhere to study beyond the classroom; the bringing together our Careers, Universities and Higher Education Departments, as well as office and meeting space for our Sixth Form and IB teams. This inclusive, multipurpose facility, scheduled to open in 2024, will enable all Sixth Formers to meet, relax, work, receive support and plan for life beyond College all in one place.
24
MICA
Life Beyond College Wellington Sixth Form College
Tuned to local context Studies for Wellington International in the Middle East.
26
MICA
Climatic Design
Working with Stowe: 20 years experience at Stowe School from estates masterplan to delivering four new boarding houses and an Art School.
2000
2001
Rick Stowe School Mather Masterplan Architects (quasi-adopted: win job EH and NT) 28
2006
2007
Queen’s Planning Consent Girls’ House (Ph1) Boarding Houses Q+S Completed
2008
2009
Stanhope Art School Planning House Consent (Ph2) Completed MICA
Masterplan to delivery Stowe School
2010
2014
2015
2016
Art School Completed
Chapel Court Design Comp.
Feasibility Chapel West Court Boarding + West Houses Houses Planning Consent
2018
2019
2023
Wynne Gallery West Chapel Refurbishment House Court Complete Complete Complete
“MICA brought superb master-planning and coherence to the academic area and allowed the School to develop an educational vision which has made Stowe into one of the top independent schools in the UK.” - Dr Anthony Wallersteiner, Headmaster
Chapel Court 2016 - 60 Boarders
Stowe West Five Boarding House
Working Model of masterplan
30
MICA
Regenerating Estates “Stowe now offers the best teaching facility of its kind anywhere in the UK.”
- Brian Johnson, the Head of Stowe Art School
When Stowe School decided to admit females for the first time, our team were engaged to design two new dedicated boarding houses, building out the tenets of the masterplan. Situated west of Stowe House, the Queen’s and Stanhope buildings respond to the shift in geometry of the historic gardens and the context of the surrounding buildings. Accommodation for 72 girls in each block.
Stowe under construction: Regular site visits, concrete frame, completed student room
32
MICA
Responding to context
Queen’s and Stanhope
Queen’s and Stanhope
The renovation and remodelling of the Art School was a consequence of the growing demand for art at Stowe and the need to accommodate the School’s provision for art and design within one building. The modern style Art Building was in poor condition and had suffered a series of low grade alterations and extensions which lost the principal feature of the large double height studio. Designed by R. Fielding Dodd in 1935, the Art Building departs from Dodd’s traditional style, as well as from the classical language found at Stowe. The project was funded by Lord Sainsbury, an Old Stoic, who set the design benchmark for the project. MICA externally renovated the art block in keeping with the original design and extensively re-organised the internal layout around a single central stair and added two single storey rooftop extensions.
34
MICA
Transformative teaching Stowe Art School
We have been engaged by Cheltenham Ladies’ College to create a 25-year masterplan, and to complete the outline design of two new boarding houses, focusing on creating stronger links through the town to better integrate the existing scattered boarding houses. The proposals will house approximately 190 students. “We have been impressed by MICA’s understanding of our requirements, the attention to details and their ability to communicate with our stakeholders with high quality presentations.”
- Edwin Wai, Estates Project Manager
St Hilda
Glenlee Beale & Cambray 65m
120m
Eversleigh
Elizabeth House Gransden
Sports Fields St Austin
Roderic
Sidney Lodge
Main College
Bayshill Farnley Lodge
100m
St Helen St Margarets Bayshill Tennis Court
Sports Fields
Bunwell
Consolidation of a common route across the campus
New student accommodation within heritage setting of Christ Church - Red brick complements the existing lodge and sits harmoniously in the context 36
MICA
A framework for future growth Cheltenham Ladies’ College
An appraisal of the built fabric, accessibility and educational facilities of the main Grade I, II* Listed campus, to improve facilities and locate sites for development and refurbishment.
The Sixth Form Hub is an opportunity for Cheltenham Ladies’ College to deliver new ways of living for its staff and students. Both brief and the design proposals look to integrate Boarding and Day Girls within the location of the Sidney Lodge sites through a complementary blend of new and refurbished accommodation within an established landscape setting. To foster close-knit communities and reflect greater accessibility, inclusivity and transparency in its design and layout. 38
MICA
Sidney Lodge Cheltenham Ladies’ College
A new music and performing arts building that will provide state of the art rehearsal, teaching and performance spaces for the Dragon School pupils. This two-storey building includes a 100-seat auditorium and 30 music practice rooms along with a recording studio and a performance garden. The building wraps around this garden providing a cloistered façade that addresses the adjacent Edwardian accommodation building. The location has been carefully selected to provide active links to the main school hall as well as reduce travel times for pupils when they attend music lessons during the school day.
40
MICA
Musical Revival Dragon School
Visual of new music school with light-filled, generous interior spaces and views out to landscaped play space
Over the last twenty years our team has helped the University of Oxford to navigate the substantial pedagogical and typological transformations that have occurred in higher education, brought about by the increasing demand for 24 hour accessible, socially innovative, and digitally sophisticated spaces for research and learning. Our emphasis on critical thinking and creative problem-solving, along with extensive client engagement, has allowed the creation of dynamic and flexible buildings that blur the boundaries of learning and social spaces, all within the strict confines of a historic city and its heritage buildings.
Keble College Parks Road Campus
ARCO, Keble College 1995
42
Cheng Yu Tung Building, Jesus College 2022
MICA
University of Oxford
“We are interested in buildings as pieces of the city, in the weave of urban fabric, in making places, in efficiency, in environmental design, in new and old, and in sensitive and respectful design. Building in Oxford demands these considerations whilst also inviting rewarding client collaborations and unique opportunities for architects and for architecture.” - Stuart Cade, Director at MICA
We have worked with Keble College, one of the largest residential colleges of Oxford University, continuously since 1995, completing two new student accommodation buildings, various renovation projects and a new bike shelter. Our largest project with Keble to date, the H B Allen Centre completed in 2019. This ongoing collaboration has been fruitful for all parties, and we regularly engage their alumni and other donors with presentations of our work at social events. “The client was rightly delighted with the solution which resulted in such high standard accommodation, built at half the cost of a traditional Oxbridge residential building. Nevertheless it is a fitting neighbour to those by Butterfield.” - Judges comment, British Construction Industry Awards
Sloane Robinson 2002
Conference spaces with views out to Newman Quad 44
MICA
25-year relationship with Keble College
ARCO, Keble College 1995
Acland House supported on piles whilst 46basement slab is cast below
Subterranean collaborative learning and research centre
MICA
Home for innovation and entrepreneurship
The H B Allen Centre integrates a historic TG Jackson building within the heart of the campus. Among the challenges the construction team faced was that of excavating under the Jackson Building and constructing an entirely new basement and foundations without it collapsing. Beneath the H B Allen Centre quad, a 2,000m2 open plan space has been designed for research and laboratories. Flexibly configured, the first two tenants are the Robotics Institute and venture capital from Oxford Sciences Innovation who provide incubator and accelerator space for post-graduate enterprises.
1-3 Student Accommodation G
Research Centre
LG
Mobile Robotics Institute
Street view of the building and extruded windows 48
Interior view of student accommodation MICA
Student Hub The H B Allen Centre
Student Accommodation 1-3 Student Cafe + Common Rooms spill out to 21st Century Quad
G
Office and Research space with LG access to sunken gardens Project Stats 250 student rooms 12,2502 standalone research building 2,000m2 flexible research space Awards
A new connection across the site offers access to other facilities and provides new outdoor spaces for students to gather in
Ox Fest Prop Awards 2020, Project of the Year – Winner Planning Awards, Placemaking Award for Design Excellence – High Commendation
Peking University HSBC Business School is the highest ranking university in China, based in Beijing and Shenzhen. PHBS UK’s vision is to create a world-class environment for education that will attract the highest calibre students and promote business learning and exchange between the UK and China. The new Foxcombe Hall campus benefits from a quiet, rural setting that specifically suits postgraduate study. The new buildings will be delivered to achieve Passivhaus Classic accreditation.
50
MICA
Prime Passivhaus accommodation
HSBC Business School, Peking University
The Hands Building was constructed with an innovative carbon negative CLT frame. This offers the benefit of carbon sequestration within the timber, classing the building as the greenest of its kind in Oxford. “The Hands Building, designed by MICA Architects, is an exemplar for student and academic accommodation, and a model off sustainability, which significantly reduces the running costs for the College.” - Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Principal
52
MICA
Embedded in setting Hands Building, Mansfield College
Hands Building, Mansfield College Oxford
Cheng Yu Tung building is a new mixed-use development for Jesus College, Oxford with ground floor retail as well as academic facilities and accommodation on the second floor upward. The lower floors of the complex add a new open-data and digital institute for Oxford University designed to promote interdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange.
New en-suite study bedrooms, with fantastic views, received positive buzz from students
Kitchen, dining and common spaces are light-filled and generous. Furniture pieces were chosen to ensure design quality, longevity, and sustainability.
The College arrangement centres around a new quad, study spaces and common rooms face the outdoor space to create a social live / study environment 54
MICA
City Campus Jesus College Oxford “With this new development, we are not just embracing the future of learning: we’re shaping it.” - Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Jesus College Principal
Jesus College hub building viewed from the Cornmarket thoroughfare
The development accommodates increased student numbers including mixed tenure residential spaces: graduate students and visiting fellows, resulting from its introduction of Computer Science and an expansion of postgraduate places; delivers improved space for students and staff; and provides more access to the work of the College. The building offers external landscaped spaces arranged across multiple levels for gathering and rest, as well as flexible adaptable social spaces.
Key 1. Digital Hub meeting rooms 2. Cafe / study space 3. Cafe kitchen / servery 4. Student bedrooms 5. Student kitchens 6. Fourth Quad
5 5
4
5
6 4
5
4
5
1
2 3
56
1
MICA
Building with high street frontage
MICA have been at the forefront of low energy design for over 40 years. We recognise our environmental responsibilities are part of a wider picture, and that our commitment to the environment runs through everything we do. From this, we have developed our own Holistic Environmental Strategy to help guide us and our clients to deliver excellence in sustainability. It is also how we deliver social impact, driving sustainable development and embodying environmental stewardship in all our projects. It is intended as a tool to define the shared priorities for a project and the performance-based metrics required to measure success. At a practice level it identifies areas of strength, opportunities for knowledge sharing and priorities for future research and development. The Strategy focuses on six main themes which are then detailed into a series of criteria to be monitored across the life of a project. These criteria are aligned with the UN Sustainable Goals and RIBA 2030 Sustainable Outcomes and refer to further detailed guidance from LETI, BREEAM, WELL Building Standard, LEED, NABERS and the UKGBC Net Zero Framework. It is a live document that is refined as we test it on our projects and updated to reflect in-house research and changing industry standards. The Strategy also shapes how we operate as a business and our commitment to the highest standard of social and environmental performance. Key criteria include staff wellbeing, quality assurance and the annual review of our carbon footprint, which can be found here. Through this we can offer our clients a fully comprehensive approach to how best to tackle key issues and deliver strategies towards net zero carbon.
58
MICA
Holistic sustainability
Cities
Thinking strategically about how we live
Streets Promoting vibrant, diverse and healthy public spaces
Buildings
Delivering high performance, low energy regenerative design solutions
Paths
Creating opportunities for people and communities
Spaces
Creating healthy and uplifting environments
Parts
Putting it all together
We design buildings that are inherently flexible and are able to be adapted over time. We recognise that changing technologies are likely to have a major impact on classroom learning and that thinking about the best ways to teach and learn is constantly evolving. We design learning spaces that can be modified quickly to enable them to be used differently. However, we understand that a highly flexible building can be very expensive and are experienced in providing flexibility through economical means, including mobile furniture and storage as well use of construction systems and plan forms that are suitable to future adaptation.
Circulation core
Flip Flex Learning
Circulation core
Flip Flex Learning Flexible study and library General group area Specialist teaching space Administration Student council, quiet area, vocational guidance
Dining area
Fixed staff area Flexible double height space
Flexible double height space Dining area
Flip Flex Learning Central staircase
Services, toilets, stores, plant
60
MICA
Future-proofed
Wellington College Junior School classroom design developed to adapt to continual changing use
Dulwich Picture Gallery Clore Duffield Learning space, with views to landscaped outdoor rooms
Towner Gallery offers flexible spaces designed promote education and learning with the building, acting as a base for community outreach programmes.
Visualisation of courtyard with flexible space for informal learning and play. A central green courtyard can form the heart of the school, in terms of a collective identity and a highly flexible shared space, but also act as a valuable teaching resource.
Our architecture places the experience of the user at the heart of the project. This begins from the earliest stakeholder engagement at the commencement of a project, and we warmly welcome the opportunity to interact with our clients in creative and meaningful ways to draw out the brief for the project. Human centered design, with excellent daylighting but controlled glare; thermal comfort with taking advantage of passive solar gains, biophilia through internal and external greenery that also mitigates heat islands, all lead to places that uplift the users. This is embodied as much in residential and education spaces, as it is in sport, dance and other creative physical activities.
Wellbeing Centre at Wellington College 62
Rambert Ballet School Timber extension MICA
Uplifting spaces
We are experienced in delivering meaningful engagement and consultation for school communities across a range of ages, interests and needs. We recognise that engagement needs to be open, broad and tailored to each school. We are experts at successfully creating trusting relationships, garnering open and honest two-way communications with communities. We produce evidence-based information to promote projects as well as adding a human and responsive element to ensure we create trust and transparency with all stakeholders. We ensure that consultation is inclusive and accessible to all. We create ways for people to get involved to ensure openness and authenticity. Our engagement tools are designed to be open to those with special educational needs.
Chester Balmore mixed use Passivhaus scheme. Schools events and workshops carried out to engage children in the process. 64
MICA
Engagement
We have extensive experience of designing contemporary buildings in the most sensitive and special settings. We take cues from the context, and marry these carefully with innovative contemporary interpretations to establish a special sense of identity. Using enduring materials which age well and naturally with the minimum of maintenance will be key to the long term success of the new building. Alongside contextual sensitivity, materials will be carefully chosen to reduce embodied carbon and achieve sustainability targets.
Cross Laminated Timber
Eco waste bricks
Concrete with low-carbon cement replacement
Clipsham Stone 66
West House Facade elevation MICA
Enduring quality
Cheng Yu Tung Building Jesus College
Services. As a practice we have developed forward looking models across multiple sectors: cultural, transport, civic, and in education. MICA continuously evaluates and researches best practice and future trends across all areas of work, education and learning practices. Industries served include: Masterplanning, Creative Industries, Modern Methods of Construction, Green and circular economies, Low carbon – environmental, Healthy Streets, and Regeneration and Planning. Services provided include:
– Architecture – Masterplanning + Urban Design – Conservation Architecture + Heritage – Landscape + Public Realm Design – Net Zero Strategy + Sustainability – Estate Decarbonisation Planning, Deep Energy Retrofit + Adaptive Reuse – Interior Design + Furniture Fixtures and Equipment – Space Planning – Planning Support – Graphics + Brand Enhancement – Signage and Wayfinding – Passivhaus Design + Environmental Design – Principal Designer + Construction Design Management – Engagement + Consultation – Project Management + Contract Administration – BIM Co-ordination + Management – Research, Development + Innovation – Public Relations + Marketing – Visualisations + 3D modelling + Virtual Reality – Physical Model Making 68
MICA
Consultation. We are a friendly and collaborative team and enjoy working closely with clients, consultants and communities to both deliver buildings and champion masterplans. We are medium-sized and nimble enough to adapt and change to suit and often balance the need to challenge a status-quo whilst listening and heeding. To build consensus and buy-in, we understand a need for an approach which maintains openness, allowing people to contribute. Fundraising. We have significant experience in working with donors and fund raisers and fully understand the process involved for securing funding and support for major capital projects from a wide variety of public and private sources. We know how to present and develop proposals that appeal to donors and have been instrumental in bringing key funders into projects. “Amazing”
- Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II Visiting the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn
MICA Architects Ltd 123 Camden High St London NW1 7JR +44 (0)207 284 1727 micaarchitects.com