Skelly & Couch worked on a spectacular new home for the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts on a site behind the Stirling Prize-winning Peckham Library in south London.

Garden Science Hub with Public Exhibition, Garden Science Hub with Public Exhibition, Members Library and Archive Space.

A 4,700m² hilltop building, featuring a roof terrace at the highest point of celebrated gardens within a significant Green Belt landscape, includes advanced research labs, libraries, and classrooms. Future-proof services for the building, gardens and the wider infrastructure were provided.

The RHS Hilltop development is the UK's first dedicated centre for horticultural and environmental science, featuring research labs, exhibition spaces, libraries, classrooms, an herbarium, and a café.

Skelly & Couch provided energy modelling, environmental design, and daylight and overheating analysis, drawing on experience from projects at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Wakehurst Place. Working closely with garden designers, they created a climate-resilient, future-proof infrastructure for the Hilltop gardens and wider site.

The building’s design maximises natural light and ventilation through rooflights, while exposed thermal mass supports passive cooling, and high-specification glazing minimises summer overheating. A sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) integrates ponds, infiltration trenches, basins, and swales into the landscape, with possible links to an irrigation storage pond.

To mitigate noise from the nearby A3 road, the herbarium archive is enclosed by thick walls, stabilising temperatures, while ground-coupled air ducts and hygroscopic materials further manage humidity, ensuring optimal conditions.

Active design measures further enhance the building’s sustainability, cooling draws on the site's irrigation system, using river and borehole water; and energy-saving features include photovoltaic cells offsetting 10% of the building's carbon emissions, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, and coordinated power supplies to minimise voltage drop.

Beyond delivering MEP and sustainability services for the new building, Skelly & Couch also designed MEP, SUDs and drainage systems for the surrounding gardens and the wider infrastructure masterplan.  The building form created three primary gardens— The Health and Wellbeing Garden (designed by Matt Keightley), The Wildlife Garden and The World Food Garden (both designed by Ann-Marie Powell) —along with smaller teaching and convening spaces.

RHS Wisley creates a sustainable hub for research, education, and community, with a harmonious integration of the building and landscape.

Awards

2021 – Guildford Design Award Winner Public Realm.

2021 – Guildford Design Award Winner Public Realm.

2022 – WAN Awards – Civic Institutes and Community Space Bronze.

2022 – AJ Architecture Award Finalist – Civic projects.

2023 – Civic Trust Award Regional Finalist.

2023 – Selwyn Goldsmith Award Finalist.

2023 – RIBA South East Award Winner.

An AJ Architecture Awards 2022 finalist in the Civic Projects category. A Regional Finalist for both a 2023 Civic Trust Award and a Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design. Winner of a 2023 RIBA South East Award. See the judges' citation: https://www.ribaj.com/buildings/regional-awards-2023-south-east-wilkinsoneyre-rhs-hilltop-culture-entertainment

The swimming pool, along with changing rooms and a multipurpose teaching and events space, is one of many phases of a site-wide energy masterplan developed by Skelly & Couch for the school, which features a CHP district heating network, sustainable technologies and a focus on passive strategies.

Skelly & Couch led environmental engineering on the refurbishment of Cambridge House, a 1920s former car showroom on the Euston Road, transformed into a flagship building for Birkbeck, University of London.

A highly sustainable, professional‑grade performance A highly sustainable, professional‑grade performance and creative hub.

An EPC ‘A' rated cultural hub with a 400-seat auditorium, rehearsal, teaching, and support spaces. Key features include ground source heat pumps, a hybrid ventilation system, and a 13 KW PV array. Winner of the 2019 RIBA National and RIBA East Awards.

Set within the historic grounds of The Perse School in Cambridge, the new Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre (PAC) honours its namesake through artistic and environmental excellence. Conceived as a social heart for the campus, its triple-height galleried foyer serves as a café by day and a gathering space by night. The building includes a flexible 400-seat auditorium, daylight-filled studios, and full back-of-house facilities. Skelly & Couch delivered the full MEP design for the professional-grade theatre, ensuring exceptional comfort, energy efficiency, and performance. The project achieved an EPC ‘A' rating and won RIBA National and East awards.

A glazed façade brings abundant natural light into the foyer and interior spaces, establishing a visual connection with the courtyard ahead, while the auditorium also maintains a strong link to the outdoors through daylighting and views to the greenery behind.

Comfort and efficiency are further enhanced by a ground source heat pump that supplies efficient, year-round heating and cooling. Optimal air quality is maintained through automated windows and a mechanical ventilation system, partly powered by a 13kW rooftop PV array, cutting emissions and reducing reliance on the grid.

For over 80% of the year, the auditorium relies on silent, natural ventilation via under-seat plenums. Warm air rises and is exhausted through two large, attenuated chimneys, preserving acoustic isolation. Mechanical ventilation activates only during full-capacity performances.  This sophisticated sustainable design merges aesthetic appeal with practical performance to create an environment that is both comfortable and conducive to the arts.

At the heart of the school community, the Peter Hall PAC breathes life into theatre through its strategic embrace of sustainability—nurturing a space where future voices rise, explore, and shine.

Awards

2019 RIBA National Award Winner
2019 RIBA National Award Winner
2019 RIBA East Award Winner
2020 Cambridge Design & Construction Best New Building Award (over £2m) Commendation
2020 Cambridge Design & Contruction Craftsmanship Award Winner
2020 Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award Winner

Heritage-Sensitive Phased Refurbishment and New Boarding Accommodation

Phase 1 involved the restoration and refurbishment of the Butterfield Building and Master’s House to create boarding accommodation for 30 pupils, including a common room, quiet study area, and kitchen. Phase 2 introduced a new building for older pupils, achieving a BREEAM 'Very Good' rating.

Located near Canterbury Cathedral, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, the Grade II-listed Butterfield Building, designed by William Butterfield in 1847, was sensitively upgraded and connected to a new boarding house for girls. The project was successfully executed on a rapid timeline, with the facilities required to be operational by the start of the academic year.

The refurbishment included new glazing and insulation to meet modern thermal standards, while the new building featured windows designed to optimise daylight and natural ventilation while minimising heat loss. The structure uses a recyclable steel frame combined with precast concrete planks and a concrete screed to balance thermal mass and lightweight construction, enhancing thermal capacity and reducing overheating.

Drainage was upgraded to HDPE, a more environmentally friendly option compared to PVC or cast iron.

Inefficient heating and lighting systems in the listed building were replaced, significantly reducing carbon emissions, while low-energy systems were implemented in the new building. LED lighting with 'absence control' was installed throughout to ensure lights automatically turn off when not in use. The heating system features automatic central controls, allowing sections of heating and hot water to be turned off when students are absent, while maintaining warmth in staff areas.

Kingsdown House blends modern functionality with heritage sensitivity. The project achieved a BREEAM 'Very Good' environmental rating, all while avoiding intrusive 'green' add-ons that could compromise its historic character.

Awards

2018 Civic Trust Awards – commendation
2017 RIBA South East Awards – shortlisted
2018 Canterbury Society Design Awards: New Building in a Conservation Area
2018 Canterbury Society Design Awards: Refurbishment
2018 Canterbury Society Design Awards: Overall Winner

Skelly & Couch was appointed to provide technical input for the masterplan and outline planning application for future developments at the City of London Freemen’s School, a co-educational day and boarding school located in Ashtead Park, Surrey.

The historic Richmond Adult Community College, which has its roots in the late 19th century (1895), has been given a new and sustainable lease of life by an impressive refurbishment and new-build development, meeting the highest standards of energy efficiency.

An exemplar science and sports facility has been built for prestigious independent school Brighton College. The leading international partnership, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), won the architectural competition for the centre and selected Skelly & Couch to carry out M&E and environmental design, owing to the company's previous innovative work at Brighton College Music School and Theatre.

Hoxton Hall is a Grade II*-listed and very rare surviving Victorian music hall located on bustling Hoxton Street in East London. The building is used as a community arts centre.