The McAvoy Group has started on-site at Merstham Park secondary school in Redhill, Surrey; a £23.7m DfE pathfinder low carbon project
The new 2-3 storey building will replace the school’s temporary facilities and provide 900-pupils with high-quality classrooms plus play space, a dance studio and an all-weather sports pitch.
The offsite constructed building will be built in McAvoy’s Lisburn factory, limiting noise and disruption on site and speeding up the delivery timeframe, with 178 individual modules craned into place over a 6-week period.
The school will boast impressive sustainability credentials, run predominantly on electricity and incorporating efficient heating and cooling systems and roof-mounted solar panels.
A range of design features will limit its visual impact, including high-specification chameleon cladding on the sports hall, which blends into its surroundings. The rest of the school is clad in vernacular brick to complement its neighbours.
Biophilia is also a central element of the design, with landscaping used to enhance the environment and provide natural shading of hardstanding areas. Trees will be carefully positioned around sun boundaries to create a pleasant environment and assist with cooling.
A central, tree-filled courtyard will offer pupils a welcoming, comfortable space for dining and social interaction.
The sports hall is the only part of the building that will be built on site due to its size.
Using innovative offsite technology
Ron Clarke, chief operating officer at The McAvoy Group, said: “This will be an exceptional school building that will meet extremely high environmental standards.
“It’s an exciting project to be involved with and we look forward to seeing the building take shape over the coming months.
“Our team at McAvoy has a great deal of experience in delivering school buildings – our innovative offsite technology means we can complete large-scale projects in a fraction of the time it would take to achieve a traditional build, without compromising at all on the design.”
Merstham Park is expected to complete in Summer 2022.
