05 June 2015
Yorkon Off-site Solutions Deliver Inspirational School Buildings to Meet the Shortfall in Primary Places
A series of primary school buildings delivered by the Portakabin Group for Enfield Borough Council demonstrates the design possibilities of off-site construction and how the approach is providing inspirational education environments to address the rising and urgent demand for school places.
The Government has called for greater use of standardisation in school construction but as these projects illustrate, the technically-advanced Yorkon off-site solution is maximising design flexibility and yet offers all the advantages of factory working - less disruption to teaching, improved quality and completion in up to half the time of site-based construction.
By 2023 there are expected to be more than 8 million pupils at school in England and the Local Government Association has predicted places will be needed for 880,000 extra pupils, creating major funding and construction challenges for schools and local authorities.
The Portakabin Group has delivered five very different school buildings in contracts worth £7.7 million for Enfield Borough Council working in partnership with Cornerstone Property Assets. Designed by Surface to Air Architects, these projects all used Yorkon off-site solutions to create:
- A two-storey building at Worcesters Primary School providing a library, ICT suite, group rooms, four large classrooms and staff facilities.
- A 22-module scheme at Chesterfield School, integrating workshops with classrooms. The two-storey building was fully clad to complement other buildings on the school site and incorporates a terraced outdoor classroom on the upper floor.
- A single storey building accommodating nine new general classrooms, reception classrooms and a nursery at Highfield Primary School.
- A three-storey scheme at Edmonton County School for primary school accommodation on the ground floor with classrooms and science laboratories on the upper floors for the secondary school.
- An extension to the George Spicer School campus, comprising 12 classrooms in two wings linked by a hall area, and including covered and open play areas, community rooms, staff facilities and a catering kitchen.
The projects were delivered by the Portakabin Group via Scape framework contractors, Kier Construction and Wilmott Dixon, and often on very constrained, fully operational school sites in residential areas which required detailed logistical planning and programming, particularly during the module installation phase.
A wide variety of architectural finishes was used on the projects, including:
- Natural wood veneer cladding to set the building at George Spicer School into its natural surroundings
- Timber-effect architectural panelling
- Multi-coloured cladding panels to create a vibrant appearance for the primary school building at Highfield School and striking green glazed brick cladding to the new nursery to complement the original Edwardian school building.
George Georgiou, School Business Manager at Edmonton County School, said, "This development was part of a primary expansion project on a secondary school site to meet the growing demand for places at reception level. It is welcoming, bright and well designed. Our experience has shown that off-site construction can be an effective way of achieving a high quality facility ready for occupation as early as possible."
"You would never know that this is a modular building from the inside - the appearance and feel of the facilities are very similar to a traditionally-constructed scheme. Watching the building being delivered and assembled so quickly was also impressive, and staff, pupils and parents are all happy with their new facilities."
Commenting on the design flexibility of the Yorkon off-site solutions used for the Enfield projects, Kevin Jones, Director of Business Development at the Portakabin Group said, "Our approach allows limitless possibilities whether for open plan learning spaces or cellular classrooms. This system is inherently flexible and very adaptable, and can easily achieve the wide spans that are ideal for education layouts."
"The practical benefits of off-site solutions are also increasingly important with the rapidly rising demand for school places. It speeds up the construction process, there is less disruption when schools are being extended and it avoids the need for large site teams on live school projects."
Yorkon solutions from the Portakabin Group have been widely used in the primary and secondary education sectors to provide purpose-designed, self-contained teaching accommodation, classroom extensions and complete schools, delivering all the speed, quality, sustainability and efficiency benefits of off-site construction.
For further information about Yorkon off-site building solutions for schools and colleges, call 0845 2000 123, email info@yorkon.co.uk or visit www.yorkon.info.
Editor's Notes
1. Images © Morley von Sternberg.
2. The benefits of Yorkon off-site solutions include:
- Programme times reduced by up to 50 per cent for earlier occupation
- Much less disruption to teaching during construction
- Columns that are no longer visible either internally or externally, for a seamless façade that can be specified with or without cladding
- The facility to fit almost any building footprint, including those designed for site-based construction - reducing architects' design time and resources
- Module lengths from 6m to 18.75m that give even greater design and space planning flexibility and the option of using larger but fewer modules to reduce cranage transport costs and site works, which is much more efficient
- Two module width options of 3m and 3.75m; three height options for single-storey buildings, and seven different heights for ground and intermediate floors on multi-storey schemes to facilitate linking to existing traditionally-constructed buildings.
3. Yorkon and the Portakabin Group are registered trademarks. Portakabin is a registered trademark which must only be used to refer to modular buildings that are known to have been manufactured by the Portakabin Group. Please note, Portakabin is not a generic term.
