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To extend the school building quickly to accommodate for new pupil intake. Located in Barnet, North London, St Michael’s Catholic Grammar School prides itself on academic excellence and pupils’ personal development. Enrolling over 90 new students each year, the school is formed of a secondary girls grammar and mixed sixth form.
As part of a long-term development programme, the school is increasing its student intake year-on-year, so additional teaching spaces were urgently required. Following a successful planning application, St Michael’s needed a construction partner that could provide a full-turnkey solution, including demolition of an existing building, service diversions, design, and handover of a new classroom block.
The new building needed to provide an energy efficient space, complete with features to help the school meet its sustainability targets. Additionally, at the request of the local community, a mosaic art installation inside the old school building had to be preserved whilst demolition took place. The project also needed to be delivered on a tightly constrained site without disrupting pupils’ education or the local neighbourhood. To achieve this at speed and within budget, we were appointed to design and build a new modular classroom block fit for future generations of students.
Housed within a three-storey modular structure, St Michael’s new modular classroom block comprised six high quality classrooms, toilet blocks, a teacher’s office on each floor, and an internal lift. To comply with planning permission, an external plant room was redesigned to be housed internally, improving visual appearance and reducing noise impact.
Externally, the design needed to respect and complement the existing school architecture. At ground floor level the building is finished in brick, with red/brown and grey rainscreen cladding on the upper floors to mirror other blocks across the campus.
Using our offsite techniques, we created a sustainable place for students and teachers to learn and work. Lay to fall roof insulation covered with single ply roof blanket and high efficiency NP solar panels were incorporated to improve energy efficiency and support the school’s sustainability goals.
Features of the building include:
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