Wouldham All Saints School is a brand new 3200m², two form entry primary school built for Kent County Council on the banks of the River Medway in the newly developed community of Peters Village.
The building is arranged as a single storey horseshoe design, laid out around a central play area with multiple changes in roof levels and forms. Externally the facades are broken up by the bold use of colour and materials, whilst internally the classrooms are characterized by brightness and height.
STREIF designed, manufactured and erected the entire building using our offsite integrated timber building system, applying the principles and practice of modern methods of construction learnt over our ninety year company history.
The project is an excellent showcase of what can be achieved when high quality structural timber is combined with innovative factory production to deliver a large complex building without the need for cumbersome steel or masonry construction. The building swallowed up 384 individually BIM designed and manufactured timber wall panels, 120 flat roof cassettes, 245 pitched roof cassettes and 71 glulam beams ranging in size from 80m x 240mm to 480mm x 1200mm. The building was delivered on board 46 articulated lorries, and was erected in 3 phases over a 12 week period by 10 operatives, on budget and on time.
The windows and doors were AuraPlus timber aluminium by Rationel, all of which were factory fitted with the exception of the large entrance array which was fitted on site. All the externally clad walls were factory sub-battened, insulated and breather membraned, allowing the main contractor to simply fix the Cedral Click cladding on site. The brick cavity walls were again externally insulated in the factory using a specialist product Isover Kontur, allowing the bricklayers to simply knock through helical twist ties and run up their face brickwork.
The entire building was erected using either a 60 tonne or 80 tonne mobile crane, depending on the lifting radii, and all controlled by our own STREIF appointed persons, lift supervisors and slinger signallers. In all about 1000 lifts!
The innovative design of the building was thanks to project architects Bailey Partnership, and the project was ably delivered by main contractor Baxall Construction Ltd. Kent County Council was represented by GEN2 and the main contract value was £7.8 million. The site ran from first excavations in late January 2017 to client handover in early February 2018. The end result is a contemporary 3195m2 school building ready to support the educational needs of the new families in Peters Village and the surrounding area.
