Burnley High School, Burnley
Overview
Design and construction of a new build Free School procured under the ESFA Regional Framework. The 450 place secondary and 200 place sixth form is a three storey 5,635 sqm ‘super block’ which includes science labs, fitness centre, food technology classroom, communal dining and a large library.
The steel framed building has been designed around a central multi-use ‘heart’ space intended to foster a community feel. The main hall features a flexible multi-purpose staircase, which doubles as an amphitheatre and social space. Upon appointment to the project, the team began a series of weekly meetings, led by our Framework Manager and involving everyone from the outset to establish feasibility and confirm that the project could be delivered within the programme and fixed funding and progressing design development.
The super-block arrangement was efficient to design, relatively simple to build, functional and flexible. It met the school requirements and the ESFA FOS within the fixed budget and is a best practice approach we have taken on subsequent ESFA projects, creating lessons we also apply to all school projects outside of the ESFA Framework.
Key Challenges
- The original proposals for the scheme were the refurbishment and extension of an existing vacant school building. A desk top study was carried out at the outset and this indicated potential coal seams in the vicinity of the school. In view of this an early targeted site investigation was carried out which confirmed the presence of the shallow worked coal seams.
- The underlying site conditions meant that refurbishment and extension was not an option and site remediation options were quickly explored. To avoid delay, and to make best use of the period needed to develop a new building design, the PCSA was extended to include the demolition of the existing building.
- An options appraisal was prepared exploring EFA ‘finger block’ and ‘superblock’ base line designs tailored to suit the site. This allowed the preferred superblock option to be chosen by the school. Ratification of the preference was further streamlined by a site visit to a similar completed project.
- Economies have been adopted within the design by a balanced cut and fill together with the re-use of crushed demolition materials and retention of existing entrances, road and car parking.
- Pre consultation with the planning authority, coal board, highways and local residents meant that planning approval was granted under delegated powers and works were able to commence in line with the revised development programme in October 2015.
The use of the framework has meant that the challenges of the site have been able to be overcome by the flexible collaborative approach adopted by the EFA, school, technical representatives and contractor.
