St Leonard’s School

Architects - Reiach and Hall Architects

The New Sports Facility at St Leonards School presents unique opportunity that could be a game changer - it’s a short corner in the last seconds of the game or a drop kick in injury time that wins the cup, it’s a free kick on the edge of the box - a chance to realise something amazing. Good sports buildings, like great sports personalities should be memorable. They need to have rigour and discipline but importantly they need to be likeable, they need to have character.

All architecture must be imagined before it can be constructed, and inspiration can come from many different sources. The St Leonards site is saturated with a rich and inescapable history, which provides cues for the generation of the new architecture. In the book St Leonards School 1877 -1927, the authors poetically describe the setting of the school. Some of the words and phrases that we found inspiring include:

‘Looking out to sea from the big playing field of the school, a slight iron beacon may be seen, rising from the waves.’ And ‘Three great gates there were, a porte-cochere, called the Pends, or vaulted place…’

Words that help to inspire us to search for a poetic and memorable expression for the building. The task of architecture is not only to provide physical shelter and to facilitate activities – that is the task of mere buildings – the task of architecture is to create spaces that exceed people’s expectations and raise their spirits. The whole experience of using the New Sports Facility should give every student the visual and sensory message that there is no limit to what they can achieve. There is an immense opportunity to create an inspiring architectural symbol that will help to raise the profile of sport at St Leonards. We want to design a place that St Leonards will take to its heart; a place that will be a tangible game changer.