We were appointed to design The Kai Yong Yeoh Building at Brighton College’s campus in Kemptown, following a limited international competition. Founded in 1845, the College is a highly-respected private co-educational day and boarding school with over 1500 pupils.

The school was experiencing unprecedented levels of interest following rising academic results and a new 10-year capital development programme was initiated to enhance and invigorate the campus, ensuring the school remains a place of world-class academic excellence.

A key project within this vision is the distinctive Kai Yong Yeoh Building which replaces several outdated structures on the site and includes 22 classrooms for various academic departments, an experimental classroom, offices, a locker room and breakout spaces for students and staff. Generous circulation areas have been included around a central atrium, which forms the social hub of the building and extends up to the Great Hall to the south on the two lower floors.

Located near the historic Front Quadrangle next to several Grade II listed buildings (including the adjacent Great Hall), The Kai Yong Yeoh building’s scale and massing respects the historic context of the highly constricted campus and is five storeys high, of which 1 to 1.5 storeys are partially hidden below ground.

Constructed of stone and brick providing visual continuity with the surrounding environment, the building features timber louvres over fully-glazed areas at the gable ends, a glazed link to the Great Hall and a series of undulating pitched zinc roofs.