Idea for June 2026: STEAM

We all know about STEM, but I came across STEAM last week on a tour of a new building at Gresham’s School in Holt.

The school is our neighbour, and it educated Benjamin Britten, W H Auden and Ben Nicholson (plus Michael Wolff of Wolff OIins). And the spy Donald Maclean.

Anyway, James Dyson is another alumnus, and he’s given the school over £50 million. The first £20 million or so was for a new teaching building by WilkinsonEyre. And Dyson’s vision was for not just science labs, but an art school too - and that’s the A in STEAM. Labs and studios would all be mixed together in one creative workspace.

The building is impressive, though for practical reasons the art bit has been separated from the science bit. It’s down in the basement, and therefore windowless, which seems to produce art that feels rather mechanical, more like controlled engineering than wild creativity.

Yet I still applaud the intention - to uncover the creativity in science, and the science in creativity.

(Image: WilkinsonEyre)