Welland Park Academy

The Brief

Hawker Construction built a new language block with five classrooms and two offices, built from traditional block and brick with a baked timber cladding for aesthetics. With powder coated aluminium windows and doors and fully air conditioned and heated throughout.

The main challenges on this job was initially the budget. The school had originally planned to build using a refurbished modular construction due to budget constraints so the challenge was to achieve this with a traditional build.

As the project progressed the main challenges became dealing with the extreme wet weather that was incurred at key stages and the high footfall of pupils with the building being located on one of the main pedestrian entrances.

The Solution

With our knowledge of construction costs and methodology we were able to work closely with the designers to develop a design that met the schools requirements exactly and actually provided a better specification than they had expected. The building was designed to be fit for purpose with no major architectural features, but it was still aesthetically pleasing and was delivered within the limited budget available.

With the project starting later in the year the main envelope was constructed in the winter months. We would therefore have to increase the labour force and working hours in the good weather to ensure the roof was built and watertight as soon as possible. Then, using dehumidifiers in the building to drag out damp from the walls so it would not hold up any of the internal works, such as plastering and painting. We worked very closely with the school on their timetable to make sure we didn’t have deliveries or workforce clashing with busy school access slots.