Design Engine Architects has achieved planning consent for a transformative expansion of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Music Centre at Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey, addressing the school’s growing need for modernised music education facilities.

This approved expansion project will double the centre’s size, consolidating facilities and adding a variety of tech-enabled practice, performance, and development spaces, including a band room, orchestra room, and recording studio, all designed to meet the needs of 950-plus students and public audiences.

The new spaces aim to provide a robust foundation for music education, emphasising skill development, teamwork, and creativity, all of which are key to 21st-century learning.

Charterhouse is a school with a long and successful musical tradition.

Around half of its pupils have music lessons, and many participate in other musical activities, covering a range of genres.

The development will unify music instruction spaces that are currently divided between the Old Music School and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Building, improving acoustics and accessibility and enhancing opportunities for collaboration and performances.

The expansion signals a commitment to fostering creativity and expression through a state-of-the-art music education experience.

The new music school has been carefully designed with all if the future users in mind, creating a welcoming new entrance closer to the rest of the campus as well as a new courtyard offering a sheltered space for outdoor performance, with the formidable Grade II-listed Gilbert Scott Memorial Chapel as a backdrop.

The building is designed to be net zero carbon in use to align with the school’s wider climate objectives and is powered by a combination of solar PV and air source heat pumps, ensuring all the energy the extension uses comes from renewable resources.

To reduce the energy the building uses further, the envelope has been designed on fabric-first principles to ensure that energy is not wasted.

This is achieved through good levels of external building envelope insulation and airtightness.

Design Engine has a longstanding relationship with Charterhouse, having delivered its first project for the school in 2009.

The practice also delivered the award-winning Chemistry & Mathematics Building in 2018.