Stanton Williams designs boarding houses blending heritage with co-education
Architecture studio reinterprets 640-year-old college's identity for its first female students
1Historic milestone in co-education
Stanton Williams' new boarding houses mark Winchester College's first architectural response to co-education since admitting girls in 2022. The 640-year-old institution's previous boarding complex dated from 1912. The design consciously bridges the school's medieval heritage with contemporary educational needs, particularly for sixth-form students balancing independence with community life. This represents a significant evolution for one of England's oldest continuously operating schools.
2Architecture as cultural mediator
The studio conducted extensive research into Winchester's unique educational culture before designing. Principal director Kaori Ohsugi emphasized understanding 'how pupils learn and live together' rather than just replicating building forms. The resulting S-shaped layout creates two distinct courtyard communities that can connect via movable partitions in dining halls. This spatial strategy physically embodies the college's transition - maintaining tradition while fostering new social dynamics between male and female students.
3Material narrative of continuity
Brick was the unquestioned primary material, directly referencing the college's Victorian boarding houses. York Handmade bricks blend four colors for textured variation. Different bonding patterns denote building functions: Flemish bond at human-scale ground levels recalls historic Antrim House, while 'hit-and-miss' brickwork filters light through stair windows. This material consistency visually ties new structures to campus heritage while accommodating modern uses.
4Spatial design for adolescent development
The design specifically addresses sixth-formers' transitional life stage. Central courtyards and cloisters encourage informal interaction, while perforated oak acoustic panels in bedrooms balance privacy with connection. Back-to-back dining halls can unite via movable walls, allowing controlled integration of gender-separated communities. Ohsugi describes this as creating 'space between school and college' - structured enough for security yet open enough for independent social development.
5Landscape as pedagogical tool
Two enclosed courtyard gardens form the project's organizational core, continuing Winchester's monastic cloister tradition reinterpreted for modern pedagogy. The S-shaped building massing breaks down scale while framing these shared outdoor spaces. Fully glazed dining halls visually connect interior and exterior, making landscape an active participant in daily student life rather than merely decorative setting.
6Craft meets contemporary function
Traditional craftsmanship appears in flint-incorporated garden walls and skylit timber dining hall ceilings using glue-laminated beams. These elements coexist with modern interventions like acoustic oak paneling. The design demonstrates how heritage materials can serve contemporary educational needs without becoming pastiche, particularly in supporting the college's evolving social dynamics through tactile, human-scaled details.
7Operational flexibility
Ground floors concentrate communal and staff spaces for supervision, while upper floors house bedrooms along central corridors. This zoning balances community interaction with private study needs. The movable partition between dining halls allows configurations from separate gender spaces to unified events. Such flexibility anticipates evolving use patterns as the college adjusts to co-education, avoiding prescriptive spatial solutions.
8Contextual design precedent
As Stirling Prize winners, Stanton Williams brings expertise in sensitively blending contemporary architecture with historic contexts, seen in their Oxford University Rhodes House renovation. This project establishes a model for how elite boarding schools might physically adapt to co-education while preserving institutional identity. It demonstrates that architectural innovation can honor heritage without being constrained by it during periods of educational transformation.