We were delighted to attend the opening ceremony of Pitt and Rubens Boarding Houses at Wycombe Abbey School last week.

Wycombe Abbey is an independent girls’ boarding school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The school forms the major part of a nationally significant landscape (Grade II) as recorded in Historic England’s Register of Parks and Gardens of Historic Importance in England. The site also forms the setting for a backdrop of rich historical architecture including the Grade II* listed Abbey and Caroe designed boarding houses and Chapel.

The project provides boarding accommodation for 108 girls (54 in each house) with supporting staff accommodation. The new buildings are set within a landscaped setting that incorporates functional aspects such as good pedestrian and vehicular access, external recreational areas for the girls, private gardens for the house mistresses, and shared gardens for the more junior staff, whilst ensuring that the design is sensitively integrated into the surrounding landscape context.

LUC was appointed in 2012 to provide town planning, landscape design and ecology services in support of the planning application and subsequent works on site. We worked closely with the school, local authority including partnering stakeholders and the wider design team to deliver an exceptional development which integrates into this highly sensitive landscape.