An immediate need for additional covered space brought New Hall School and Streetspace together in 2020. More than 1,500m² was developed across the historic Essex campus for teaching, play, performance, recreation and everyday school activity.
Although the programme responded to an immediate requirement, the spaces have since become established parts of the estate. That first phase has also developed into a wider relationship, with Streetspace continuing to support New Hall as it considers future sports infrastructure, theatre improvements and the adaptation of existing facilities.
Creating covered space across the campus
The original programme needed to provide useful external capacity quickly without compromising the quality of what was being added to the estate.
At the Prep School, a large covered structure was developed over the playground, creating a naturally lit environment that could support teaching, play, assemblies and events throughout the year. The architectural response mattered because of its setting. Timber-clad columns and carefully controlled roof heights helped the structure sit more comfortably within the surrounding historic estate rather than reading as a temporary addition.
Alongside the Walkfares Performing Arts Centre, Streetspace delivered a second substantial covered environment of more than 920m². The scale allowed the area to accommodate a much wider range of activity, while retaining the openness and daylight that made it useful as an external environment.
Additional covered areas alongside classroom buildings created sheltered breakout and outdoor learning space for students and staff, extending the approach into other parts of the campus.
The Walkfares Performing Arts space
The space alongside the Performing Arts Centre is perhaps the clearest example of the original programme becoming something more significant.
Rather than simply providing weather protection, the structure created a large permanent environment that could support performances, presentations and events. Its scale and openness gave the School an additional venue with a character distinct from its internal facilities, while allowing activities that would otherwise depend on the weather to be planned with greater confidence.
It has since become one of the most visible and regularly used covered spaces on the campus. Music and drama performances, dance and rehearsals, assemblies and other events have all made use of it, demonstrating how a relatively simple requirement for shelter can develop into a much broader piece of estate infrastructure when the space itself is designed around long-term use.
Beyond the original requirement
Although the programme was accelerated by the circumstances of 2020, the test of the investment came afterwards.
The covered environments did not become redundant when the immediate requirement passed. They became embedded in the way the School uses its estate: for outdoor learning and play, music and drama, dance and rehearsals, sport and recreation, assemblies, presentations and events.
That breadth of use is important. The projects were not designed around a single temporary purpose, and their value has not depended on one. They created permanent environments capable of supporting different activities as the School’s requirements changed.
New Hall described the completed spaces as “absolutely stunning” and highlighted the role they played during a particularly challenging period. Their continued use since then provides the stronger long-term evidence: these are now established parts of campus life rather than remnants of the circumstances in which they were commissioned.
The next stage of the estate
The relationship has continued beyond the original covered-space programme. Streetspace remains involved in discussions around future improvements to the New Hall estate, including sports infrastructure, theatre enhancements and the adaptation of existing facilities.
Most recently, Streetspace has been appointed to undertake structural design work for a proposed new covered multi-use games area. The School continues to involve the team during feasibility and planning, before the eventual form of a project has necessarily been fixed.
That progression is what makes New Hall an Estate Partnership rather than simply a collection of canopy projects. The first programme demonstrated what permanent covered space could contribute to the campus; subsequent conversations now start with an established understanding of the estate, its architectural context and how New Hall wants its facilities to develop.
Discovering the benefits of covered outdoor space at New Hall School
The students and staff of New Hall School explain how their new Streetspace canopy structures are transforming school life and supporting increased outdoor learning and recreation.
Discuss your estate plans
If you are considering how covered space, sports provision or other campus improvements could form part of a longer-term estate plan, Streetspace can become involved while the requirement is still being explored.