Freemen's School - Eckersley O'Callaghan

ST Awards 2018 - WINNER - Education Project of the Year

Glulam and cross-laminated timber (CLT) is at the centre of a new £8 million building housing a 25m long six lane swimming pool and teaching area at Freemen's School in Ashtead. The structure was engineered by Eckersley O’Callaghan in close collaboration with architects Hawkins Brown.

This project is a brilliant example of the project team, under main contractor Gilbert Ash, working together with project with Wiehag that undertook the final construction design and production detailing of the CLT and glulam to deliver an exemplar building that sets new standards in quality and design.

The architects Hawkins Brown had to meet the challenging brief of designing a large pool building that needed to be sensitively located and designed to minimise its impact on the school’s woodland landscape, as well as conceal the building from the school’s Grade II listed Main House.

The timber package comprises glulam portal frames with CLT roof and wall panels and includes CLT benches. The complicated design had to meet the architect's desire to have no visible bracing and hidden connections, while meeting the client's budget and timescale expectations. This has been achieved with a beautiful, solid design, which was recently recognised with a RIBA South East Award, as well as the RIBA South East Sustainability Award and the RIBA South East Client of the Year Award.

To view the full article please go to Special Edition 2018.

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