An extension to the early years foundation stage at Greentrees Primary School. This project was a precursor to the main Greentrees redevelopment and was built to deal with an immediate pressure for school places in the next academic year. For this reason the programme was extremely constrained and it was decided that cross-laminated timber (CLT) would be an appropriate structural solution due to its fast-track nature and the requirement to be ‘in-the-dry’ very quickly.
The external cladding was built to coordinate with the existing school building featuring horizontal timber boarding, large areas of coloured panelling and metal sheet roofing. The new block is linked to the existing building by a glazed link housing the cloakroom area.
Internally, the exposed CLT surfaces create a warm, inviting environment for the smallest inhabitants of the school with a clearly legible structural system. We also designed bespoke early years furniture; a role-play loft and custom cloakroom storage.
