Overview:

Delivered under the Priority Schools Building Programme, Kingsteignton Primary School combines the architectural expertise of Scott Brownrigg with Galliford Try’s award-winning Optimum Schools principles and Innovaré’s acclaimed offsite technology.

As the construction industry was being challenged to rethink the way schools were designed and constructed, Galliford Try published ‘The Optimum Primary School – an education-led response to primary school design.’ The principles are:

• An approach to standardisation which would not result in a one size fits all methodology
• Potential for offsite manufacture for the benefit of cost & programme
• A solution which suits new build, remodelling, refurbishment & extension
• Flexibility of choice of construction materials to meet regulations, constraints & preferences
• Integrated architecture, M+E, FF+E, ICT & external space

The Innovaré team managed the structural design, manufacture, and installation – developing a simple, yet effective solution. We demonstrated an innovative approach to supporting the design and construction process, integrating our BBA Accredited i-SIP full structure to meet performance specifications defined in Galliford Try’s Optimum Schools protocols. Using scaffoldless erection and a lean team of installation operatives, the school structure covering 2,330m2 Gross Internal Floor Area (GIFA), was built in just 14 weeks.

Our partnership with Galliford Try facilitated close collaboration at the design phase bringing our practical offsite expertise to the fore at the very earliest stage. Together we created an offsite manufactured structure that was easy to assemble and finish. As part of a hybrid offsite approach for the two-storey school, the core structural solution is Innovaré’s award-winning i-SIP System – an advanced Structural Insulated Panel solution (SIP) used to form the high-performance structure, encompassing external walls, internal partitions and floors. Perpendicular steel and timber beams together with pre-cast stair units and the external pre-fabrication of the M&E system – all came together to deliver programme efficiencies.

At a total project cost of £12.6million, the Kingsteignton Primary School follows the Optimum Schools principles, which has been created to work across the broadest possible range of sites.

From concept to completion – the development delivered both cost and programme certainty, ensuring the new £5 million state-of-the-art primary school opened on time and within budget, providing places for 420 pupils. Delivery of this new facility is a key element in the area’s continued expansion plans with more than 12,000 new homes being scheduled in the coming years.