04/10/10 - St Luke's C of E Primary School wins the 2010 RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools Award

The award is given to the architects of the best RIBA Award-winning school (primary or secondary) with the aim of raising the standards of design in all new school building.

St Luke’s CE Primary School is Britain’s first ‘environmentally excellent’ primary school, according to BREEAM standards. It was designed without corridors, or other spaces that may traditionally encourage antisocial behaviour. Instead, the light, airy, naturally ventilated classrooms are grouped around social spaces, and the architecture makes for a genuine sense of community, which has contributed significantly to help transform a deprived area.

The announcement was made at the RIBA Stirling Prize 2010 Dinner in association with The Architects' Journal and Benchmark on Saturday 2 October 2010, which took place at The Roundhouse, London. Tom Dyckhoff, architecture critic for The Times announced the winner, and the award was presented by Lady Sorrell of the Sorrell Foundation. The prize was judged by a jury comprising Lady Sorrell, Mukund Patel of the Sammon Group, and Ian Goodfellow of Penoyre & Prasad, last year’s winners.

Speaking about St Luke’s, Lady Sorrell said: “St Luke’s is an inspiration. Anyone involved in building a new primary school should go and see this school before doing anything else.”

The other buildings shortlisted for the award were:

§ Rednock School, Gloucester by Cube Design

§ Clapham Manor Primary School, London by dRMM

§ Christ's College School, Guilford by DSDHA

§ Lowther Children's Centre, London by Patel Taylor