Ark John Keats Academy’s new sixth form centre transforms underused space through retrofit, creating calm, collegiate environments that support wellbeing, learning and sustainability.

Ark John Keats Academy is a mixed comprehensive school in Enfield serving a diverse community. The new sixth form centre gives students a high-quality space that feels genuinely theirs – grown-up in character, and a stepping stone between adolescence and the worlds of work and academia.

The design emerged from close collaboration with the school, refining the brief to build less but better. By identifying latency within the estate, a third of the programme was delivered in underutilised spaces – driving down cost and carbon, and raising the bar on quality.

The result is a series of generous, healthy spaces – well daylit with passive and active shading, good acoustics, and a calm palette of natural materials. Views to the courtyard and landscape connect students to the outside throughout their day.

The structural solution developed with the design team achieved a 38% reduction in embodied carbon compared to conventional design. Exposed throughout, the structure provides thermal mass and legibility, forming a grid for partitions to sit within – removable and relocatable as the school grows and teaching methods evolve.

Simple, clear and durable - the building leverages retrofit and resourceful solutions to create an inspiring environment that helps unlock young people's potential for tomorrow's world.