Through its clear span and flexible and inspiring assembly, the Marlowe Academy grid shell enables performance and 'heart space' at the centre of this award-winning structure in the UK.
The heart space concept is a key element in the architectural vision for importing educational outcomes and is at the centre of an arc of teaching, sports and performance accommodation. The doubly curved timber grid shell roof that unites all these internal spaces is a section of a toroid, which provides a structurally efficient and elegant enclosure to the column-free space below.
The grid shell leaps in a single 28 m ascent to the roof of the teaching faculty at the perimeter of the central space. The tight radius of the inner support is converted to a wider radius on the outer support by the clever use of parabolic plan geometry.