Flora and fora

摘要

Sheppard Robson's Waingels College on the outskirts of Reading is virtually all wood. Yet sustainable design did not drive the decision to build a timber school. Delivered through the Building Schools for the Future One School Pathfinder programme, under which local authorities are given the opportunity to completely redevelop one (and one only) secondary school in their area, the multi-phase project largely replaces an existing secondary school on the same site. While both client and project team viewed timber as sympathetic to the school's location at the edge of the green belt, the deciding factor was the operational flexibility offered by prefabrication. 'We looked at a full decant, but that would have cost £2.5 million and we preferred to put that money into the building itself. Prefabrication enabled us to build cheek by jowl with the existing school,' says Sheppard Robson design director Lee Bennett.