Project Description
The aspiration is to create a collaborative, community focused facility which will include Lawmuir Primary, Sacred Heart Primary, a Family Learning Centre, community and partnership zones in a brand new dynamic building. A tandem build project being delivered over three phases, comprising the construction of a new two-storey building which delivers a state-of-the-art learning environment for 1,050 pupils, featuring a large entrance atrium, flexible learning zones, performance spaces and dining areas.
There is also improved outdoor sport facilities alongside a fully integrated landscape design which includes car and cycle parking bays.
Challenges
This has been a particularly complex project undertaken to demanding timescales and with a high degree of public scrutiny. The health and safety of the students, the public, East Dunbartonshire Council staff and construction operatives were a priority. The logistics were challenging with only a single vehicle access to the campus, careful consideration and a robust Traffic Management Plan was required to ensure the existing school continued to operate unhindered and safely whilst the construction site worked alongside. To assist, an enabling works contract commenced in October 2020 in advance of the main contract start of January 2021.
Atrium
Successes
Boclair Academy is situated behind and adjacent to residential areas with extensive change in levels running east to west between the existing school and the hockey pitch and north to south between the school and the rugby pitch. A vast quantity of topsoil was required in the construction of the new sports pitch resulting in the project requiring a volume of both topsoil and subsoil to be moved from the south and east of the existing school to the north of the existing school. The materials were placed in sealed mounds in preparation for use at a later stage of the project. A new haul road was created around the perimeter of the existing sports pitches to allow the extensive earthwork activities to progress safely with minimum disruption to the campus operations. The key benefit to the project being a programme betterment of 4 weeks.
Value for Money Solutions – The budget priorities were set out for the designers at an early stage and were supported by rigorous cost control measures from the outset of the project. We utilised benchmark data and undertook value engineering at various stages to ensure close budget management whilst prioritising client objectives.
Design sprints in the form of stakeholder workshops were held to consult, understand, and develop the strategic, technical, and operational briefs.
A set of detailed Authority Construction Requirements (ACR) were developed with a derogation schedule. The Design Team attended regular stakeholder meetings where the floor plans and room layouts were carefully developed and reviewed ensuring compliance with the ACR’s and the client’s vision and first principles as the design progressed. An FF&E Specialist was appointed at an early stage to bring a high degree of cost certainty. All of these activities were undertaken during the Pandemic using MS Teams in lieu of face to face meetings.
Lessons Learnt
Strategic – In order to foster a cross curricular approach, an organisational model was agreed in which key subject areas who work closely together were located within easy reach of each other. The new school has been designed around curricular groupings of related subjects under the following headings: Languages & Humanities; STEM (Science, Technologies, Food Technology, Business & Computing); Expressive & Performing Arts; Learning Support.
Operational – A Decant Strategy has been developed and included in the Contract Works to ensure a seamless commissioning and decommissioning of the new building and existing building respectively, thus relieving the Client of the reputational risk of not having sufficient resource to ensure the school opens on time.