Link Primary School

The suburbs are a site of enterprise and an invention and here in Sutton, a group of parents came together to offer an answer to their children’s educational needs by setting up Link Day Schools—a charity providing primary, secondary and sixth form schooling for pupils with learning difficulties, including autism.

Started in two 1930s semidetached houses, and then gradually expand into more residential properties on the same street, the charity’s building stock was no longer meeting the needs of these high-performing schools. DSDHA was thus asked to prepared a phased masterplan strategy for the school’s development.

Phase One has provided a new learning centre with occupational therapy. The resultant building is both resolutely contemporary yet in dialogue with its modest mid-century surroundings. It sensitively responds to the residential context, whilst giving a more civic and dignified character to the educational complex.

Team:

Architect: DSDHA

Structural Engineer: Price & Myers

M&E Consultant: Max Fordham

Cost Consultant: Stockdale

Main Contractor: Jerram Falkus / BRAC

Planning Consultant: Turley Associates