Stanton Williams completes first girls' boarding houses at Winchester College

Stanton Williams has completed two boarding houses for girls at Winchester College, the school's first new boarding complex since 1912 and the first in its history designed for girls. Winchester College moved to co-education in 2022; it was founded in 1382.

The Stirling Prize-winning London studio wrapped two courtyard gardens with gabled brick buildings, referencing the historic layout and architecture of the 640-year-old site. The aim, according to the practice, was to ground the scheme in both the site's historic architecture and the "culture of the college", using familiar materials and a layout based on its historic buildings and cloisters.

"We started by trying to understand Winchester on its own terms – not just its buildings, but how the college works and how pupils learn and live together," Stanton Williams' principal director Kaori Ohsugi told Dezeen.

Because the houses serve sixth formers, the studio focused on the transitional character of the buildings. "We were also interested in the space between a school and a college – somewhere that provides comfort and security, but also encourages independence, conversation and the exchange of ideas," she said.

"That thinking shaped the courtyards, cloister and sequence of shared spaces, so the architecture supports the culture of the college rather than simply providing accommodation."

S-shaped plan, movable wall

The two boarding houses form an S-shape that encloses two courtyard gardens on either side. Rows of gable roofs break down the massing of the blocks.

Overlooking the central courtyards are two back-to-back dining halls with fully glazed walls and skylit timber ceilings. A movable partition wall can unite them as a single large space.

"Each house has its own dining hall – its own heart, in a sense – but the wall can open and the two courts, the two communities, come together," Ohsugi explained.

"It's a small architectural move, but it carries the whole idea of the project, two houses that are distinct but never separate," she added.

The ground floors accommodate communal and staff spaces alongside the dining areas. Above, two floors of bedrooms are organised off central corridors, orientated either to the courtyard or to the surrounding campus.

Brick that quotes the Victorians

The exterior brickwork references the college's Victorian boarding houses, with varying bonds, textured areas and patches of flint incorporated into the garden walls. Inside, warm oak panelling with perforated acoustic panels complements the glue-laminated timber beams of the dining halls.

"Brick was never in question – it's what the Victorian boarding houses are built from, supplied here by brick manufacturer York Handmade as a blend of four colours," Ohsugi explained.

The studio calibrated the brickwork to how each part of the building is used. "We varied the bonds according to how each part of the building is used," she said. "Flemish bond at ground level, where people experience the wall at close range, references Antrim House and the historic core."

"A vertical stretcher bond marks the transition at the cloister openings, and 'hit-and-miss' brickwork sits in front of the staircase windows, giving soft, dappled light and a degree of privacy without feeling closed off," she added.

Stanton Williams was founded by Alan Stanton and Paul Williams in 1985. Its previous projects include a retirement complex overlooking Hampstead Heath in London and the renovation and extension of the Grade II*-listed Rhodes House at the University of Oxford. The studio won the Stirling Prize in 2012 for the Sainsbury Laboratory in the botanic gardens of Cambridge University. Photography of the boarding houses is by Jack Hobhouse.

The completed houses mark the most concrete architectural step yet in Winchester College's transition to co-education, and set the material and spatial template for how the 640-year-old institution plans to house its newest pupils.