Charles Tashima Architecture developed a space designed for asking questions at the Science Lab ‘Q’ for Yerbury Primary School in London, England.

Formerly used as a cloakroom and storage, Yerbury School’s new science lab ‘Q’ in North London has been reconfigured to provide children a dedicated place to ask fundamental questions related to science by watching tadpoles become frogs, testing how sound travels through materials and exploring why things go up or down. ‘Q’ stands for questioning.

The two centrepieces of the room are a cast iron spiral stair, re-purposed from a historic building in central London that leads up to a new mezzanine created to expand the working space, and a ‘cabinet of curiosity,’ an ever-changing exhibition of inspiring artefacts that include animal bones, plants, spiders, rocks and even a resin cast of Einstein’s brain.

‘Q’ was unveiled with ribbon cutting by Dr Chris Van Tullekan of CBBC television series ‘Operation Ouch!’ in the Spring of 2016 in preparation for National Science Week and is now fully operational with many experiments already underway. The work was completed on a very tight programme and budget with funds raised by the Yerbury Home School Association (YHSA).

Design: Charles Tashima Architecture
Photography: Oliver Perrott