A vision for education realised
Oasis Academy Silvertown is a new DoE school at the heart of the regeneration of London’s Royal Docks. Vandersanden’s Perla bricks were specified to help to create a building that sets an aesthetic benchmark.
Hear from the mind behind Oasis Academy Silvertown, East London
We talk to Éimear Murphy, associate director at architects Rivington Street Studio. We’ll get her ideas on brick selection and using brick to create a landmark educational building.
What we really liked about Perla is that it’s not only a white brick, with no variation in the colour, but it has quite a rustic, handmade texture that gives it a warm feel rather than a shiny and engineered surface finish.
How would you describe the project?
At the heart of an emerging community in West Silvertown, the Oasis Academy is an all-inclusive secondary school for 600 students on a constrained .25 hectare-site. Arranged as a multi-storey ‘superblock’, the striking building incorporates outdoor social space at different levels and a full-sized sports pitch on its roof.
What was your design vision for the project?
The warm white brickwork and large openings relate to the existing and new residential properties and the monumental listed Silo D nearby. The thick external walls are folded to provide a layered facade in response to the elements. A double-height colonnade to
the North Woolwich Road acts as a visitor entrance and engenders a civic quality to the building while also allowing for generous pedestrian movement and a deep threshold between the public domain and secure school environment.
How does your choice of brick complement this vision?
The site is surrounded by a mix of red brick residential properties, derelict industrial land and vast stretches of master-planned residential and commercial properties. We wanted the Academy to stand out from this landscape. Vandersanden’s white Perla bricks give the building a monumental quality, highlighting that the building is for the community and is not an apartment block.
Why did you choose Vandersanden for the project?
Taylor Maxwell, the brick supplier, showed us lots of samples and Vandersanden’s Perla brick was one of them. What we really liked about the Perla is that it’s not only a white brick, with no variation in the colour, but it has quite a rustic, handmade texture that gives it a warm feel rather than a shiny and engineered surface finish.
Explain your choice of mortar?
We matched the mortar to the brick to achieve a homogenous feel to the building. From a distance it’s a white cube but, as you get closer, the surface detail of the mortar joints and brick texture starts appearing. At different times of the day, the building’s appearance changes as patterns of light and shade move across the texture of the bricks.
What brick innovations were there with this project?
There were various challenges to creating the brickwork details. The sharp angles associated with the brick fins on the side elevations meant there were a lot of brick specials so we scheduled those with plans drawn through the fins at every other course at the different levels. The contractor then cut the bricks to the schedule. This was made possible because the Perla bricks are exactly the same colour all the way through. For the canted reveals of the double-height colonnade to the main elevation, brick slip panels were used. We worked with the brick subcontractor to develop what is quite a bespoke detail and we tried lots of different mock-ups.
The brick slips are seamless in appearance, matching with the full bricks used elsewhere. The canted reveals to the windows on the south elevation were envisioned through extensive 3D modelling and the Perla bricks again proved highly versatile during construction.
How would you sum up your experience with Vandersanden on this project?
The Vandersanden bricks are incredibly high quality and the through colour simplified the construction process because the bricks could simply be cut to suit the building’s geometry. Another important factor was the excellent consistency of the batches as this was essential to achieving the building’s monolithic, one-colour look.
Thanks Éimear, for taking time to talk to us and of course choosing Perla facing bricks by Vandersanden for your project.
Brick slip used – Perla 125A0
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it doesn’t always give you the full story. Sometimes you just need to see it for yourself, hold it in your hand and feel the texture to be truly inspired.
Project information
- Project – Oasis Academy Silvertown
- Location – Silvertown, London
- Architect – Rivington Street Studio
- Developer – Department for Education
- Contractor – Morgan Sindall
- Brick used – Perla
- Year of completion – 2022
- Project photography – Simon Kennedy and Rachel Ferriman
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