ADS2: NEW POLITICS, NEW URBANISM

Trojan House

Last year more boys from Eton achieved three As at A-level than those on free school meals in the entire nation. Trojan House explores the entrenched inequality between public schools and urban comprehensives by bringing together these two typologies on the Chelsea Barracks site. Reinterpreting the traditional public school house system and urban teenage gang mentality, my hybrid school uses spaces for cooperation (dining, teamwork, smoking) and conflict (arguing, competing, fighting) to explore socio-economic differences. A simple, beguiling section seems to place the public school above the comprehensive school, with few opportunities for interaction. Zooming in, however, the architecture creates moments of collision – both joyful and tense – between the two pupil demographics.