Anna Freud Centre London

All of the Novastruct glazing systems feature a diagonal frit on the glass, with the Novastruct curtain walling featuring on the ground to top floors and the FSX 100 SSG parallel-opening vents on all but the ground floor.

The aluminium Novastruck systems were installed over eight months by a team of six from approved specialist sub-contractor/dealer JPJ Installations for main contractor Willmott Dixon.
The charity that today bears the name of Sigmund Freud’s sixth and youngest child was first established almost 70 years ago and its approach, that every child and its family should be at the heart of the care they receive, working in partnership with professionals, has been reflected in Penoyre & Prasad’s design.
This needed to be striking to reflect the charity’s aspirations to reflect its status as a world-renowned organisation working with eminent academic institutions as University College London and Yale.
This itself presented a challenge, bringing together the multiple needs of the individual users of the building, from children and their families in need of support, to researchers, clinicians and internationally-renowned visiting academics attending symposia.
At the front, in the space made vacant by the excavation of a former courtyard, is the new six-storey building housing shared conference facilities and the Pears Family School which is sponsored by the Anna Freud Centre.

This caters for up to 48 youngsters who have been excluded from school or alternative education provision and helps them return to mainstream education.
Penoyre & Prasad worked from the outset with the diagonal motif on the glazing on both the front and rear facades to inform both the transparent elevation and the precast cheeks of the building which they could do very little with as they were both party walls but which nevertheless replicate the diagonal fritting.

The five-storey chocolate factory, parts of which had been used as offices since the 1990s, was converted into a combination of head office facilities and therapy, post-graduate teaching and research (part of which had been based at University College London) and break-out spaces for the Anna Freud Centre.
Although not listed, heritage officers at Islington Council had still been anxious about how it would be developed.

The client was very keen to have as environmentally friendly a building as possible so aluminium seemed like the natural choice for the curtain wall system which has been used extensively to the east and west facades and as a large rooflight.
The parallel opening design benefits from excellent ventilation characteristics combined with thermal performance.

Increased air flow around the full perimeter of the window enables highly efficient natural ventilation while greatly reducing draughts as fresh air is drawn in the bottom of the window while warm, stale air is expelled via the top, creating full air circulation within a room.
This efficient exchange of air can assist with Approved Document F compliance and can enable the window to meet the ventilation requirements of even the most demanding project.