Platform 5 Architects have completed a major refurbishment at Waltham Forest College in north-east London in collaboration with GTH/architects. The £3 million project opens up the existing landmark 1930s building to create a new series of formal and informal education and meeting areas, which work as set of interacting horizontal and vertical layered spaces. The intervention of a suspended glazed seminar box within the central learning space, accessed by a slender oak-lined staircase, is the project’s most striking feature. Our team have transformed the previously austere and run-down main spaces in the college to create a welcoming, inclusive and contemporary environment for students, staff and other building users.

This project marks the first phase in the delivery of a strategic masterplan. The success of the project has led to a further commission to carry out the second stage of the masterplan with a £4.9M project.