Predicting demand for school places has never been a perfect science – but in the past it has always been based on managing demand for new places, or the need to replace dilapidated and unsuitable buildings. Covid-19 is throwing in a whole new set of challenges requiring a rapid response, to managing the balance to meet social distancing measures with the need for pupils to have time in school for learning.
The priority now is to bring new accommodation into use quickly and to a reliable schedule. This may historically have meant compromising on the design and building performance. Temporary classrooms may have provided a stop-gap solution in the past, but these offer little flexibility over the design of learning spaces. Experience shows how they can easily become semi-permanent facilities with a far from ideal learning environment. The need to compromise however is no longer the case.
Rapid build with no compromises
Panelised offsite construction provides answers to the many challenges faced by schools and local authorities. Innovaré’s system has been proven to offer a high degree of design flexibility, exceptional thermal and acoustic performance, and the ability to significantly shorten build times compared to traditional methods.
School building programmes delivered using the system range from adding a small number of classrooms to existing sites up to a complete new-build secondary school for 900 students. These have all been delivered to tight schedules and typically take weeks out of the building programme.
The offsite building process has the additional advantage of reducing the duration and intensity of onsite works. The building structure, including walls, roofs and floors, is manufactured offsite in parallel with site preparation. It is then assembled onsite by our specialised installation team.
Reduced disruption
Often, the most intensive work can be scheduled to take place during holidays or at weekends to reduce any learning disruption and minimise safety risks.
The precisely controlled build quality provides confidence that building performance will match the design specification. Having the entire process – from design to delivery – controlled by our in-house teams reduces the chances of any slippages in the programme. It also avoids any frustrating last minute technical or quality issues.
When high performing school buildings are needed on a tight schedule, to a reliable budget, and ready to go from the first day of term, the system is the ideal no-compromise solution. For more information click here.
