Walters & Cohen Architects has successfully completed the new Rausing Science Centre at The King's School in Canterbury, England, featuring a striking flint and dressed limestone façade and a modern 120-seat lecture hall. The ambitious project aimed to consolidate and modernize the school's science department while upgrading laboratories in the neighboring Grade II-listed Parry Hall.
The centerpiece of the new facility is a flexible, accessible 120-person lecture hall located on the ground floor, designed to accommodate various academic and administrative functions. The building replaced Mitchinson's day house, originally designed by Maguire and Murray in 1982, which was deemed unsuitable for conversion to science teaching spaces due to its low ceilings and limited space. The demolition was approved in 2018 only after the then Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) determined it did not qualify for heritage status, rejecting The Twentieth Century Society's request for listing.
Walters & Cohen's design maintained the previous building's footprint while increasing basement depth to achieve greater ceiling height on the lower ground floor. During excavations, Canterbury Archaeological Trust discovered evidence of a first-century Roman road on the site. The project's location within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Canterbury Cathedral's precincts, surrounded by listed buildings and Scheduled Ancient Monuments, required extensive collaboration with Historic England, the Cathedral Fabric Commission for England, and Canterbury Cathedral's Fabric Advisory Committee, resulting in 13 Scheduled Ancient Monument applications.
The material selection evolved through detailed consultations, designed to give the new building a crisp, contemporary appearance while respecting its sensitive historic context. The French limestone matches that used in Canterbury Cathedral's construction, while random snapped quarried flint cladding helps break up the façade. The center's spaces are designed for adaptability to future needs, incorporating natural cross-ventilation, high thermal mass, and night cooling as part of the future-proofing strategy.
According to Cindy Walters, director of Walters & Cohen, the project emerged from a site-wide masterplan and represented the fifth collaboration with the school, and the second within the historic Cathedral Precincts. She emphasized the challenge of creating a contemporary building that signals the north entrance to the Cathedral Precincts and main entrance to the school while improving the surrounding public realm and increasing planting and open space. The architectural team took pride in avoiding any hint of pastiche while delivering spaces that staff and students love for teaching and learning.
Mark Taylor, Bursar at The King's School Canterbury, highlighted the school's unique position within two of Canterbury's UNESCO World Heritage Sites and its unrivaled educational history dating back to 597 AD. He noted that the building fits extremely well visually and in terms of massing with surrounding structures, and has been cleverly connected and integrated with the adjacent Victorian science building, which was also extensively refurbished. The facility serves the school's community outreach program, particularly the local-school science initiative called Saturday Smarties.
The project commenced in April 2019 and reached completion in November 2023, encompassing 940 square meters of gross internal floor area and 2,777 square meters of total floor area. The collaborative effort involved multiple specialists including Price & Myers as structural engineers, Skelly & Couch as mechanical and electrical consultants, Fanshawe as quantity surveyors and project managers, and various other specialized consultants. The building demonstrates impressive environmental performance with 100% of floor area achieving daylight factor 2, airtightness at 50Pa of 3m3/h.m2, and annual CO2 emissions of 12.4kgCO2eq/m2.
