Ark Evelyn Grace Academy is a school on Shakespeare Road in Brixton, in the London Borough of Lambeth. Zaha Hadid designed it, and she called her approach parametricism. The education charity ARK commissioned it. The school opened in temporary accommodation in September 2008 and moved into the new building in September 2010. The build cost was 38 million pounds, and David Gorton gave 2 million toward it.
The plan is curved and Z-like, with twisting corridors. Three floors of classrooms sit on a solid concrete podium. Classroom walls are rendered white or left as bare concrete. The site includes a gym, an art block, all-weather pitches and a 100-meter running track.
Daylight is limited in places, and some rooms have no windows, so lighting runs through the day. The school won the Stirling Prize in 2011. Its design inspired the reverse of the Brixton Pound 5-pound note.
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