Typology                           
Education / heritage / architecture / urban design

Client                                 
Bishops Preparatory School

Location
Rondebosch, Cape Town

Year                                    
Completed in 2013

Team                                  
Architecture & Urban design: Urban Concepts
Structural engineering: De Villiers & Hulme
Quantity surveying: Riverside Consulting
Health and Safety: Safetycon
Land surveying: Ken Hodge
Contractor: Status Africa Construction

Image credits                   
Drawings, graphics and site photographs by Urban Concepts
Completed project photographs by Andrea van der Spuy Photography and Urban Concepts

Jagger Hall, Annex and Aftercare
Bishops Preparatory School, Rondebosch

“Highly functional and easily accessible spaces, openness and light… a very successful project!”
Greg Brown, Bishops Prep Headmaster

As the oldest building on the Bishops Prep School campus, Jagger Hall was a space full of unoptimized potential. Through the Campus Development Framework, 2010, Jagger Hall and its surrounds were identified as a key area for revitalization. This developed into an architectural project, including the rehabilitation of the hall and the introduction of a new reception area, kitchen and aftercare facility, and is an example of a development framework empowering the Client with an overall strategy for incremental upgrades.

The design proposal focused not only on the refurbishment of the buildings themselves, but also on their potential to contribute to the greater campus by activating the open spaces around them and strengthening their connection to other parts of the school – a new covered stoep and walkway create an active interface with the adjacent courtyard and re-define one of the key pedestrian links within the school. The new additions have a contemporary architectural language with clean lines, wide openings, light timber, exposed steel and discreet feature lighting. This contrasts with the historic hall with its dark vaulted roof, celebrating its heritage value.

A visit to the school in 2018, five years since the Jagger Precinct was reopened, revealed how the learners and greater school community have taken ownership of their new space – the courtyard is a space of gathering and play, with the low walls used for informal seating; the hall is adorned with the learners’ artwork; and the reception area is laid with tables ready for that evening’s after-hours function.