Houlton School

Introduction

The building of any new community needs a focus, a staple, a main focal point and with the new community consisting of over 6,200 new homes, a new secondary school would become a mandatory requisite for the future.

The caveat to this community was that in the heart of it, included an old historic Grade II listed radio station which was built in 1926 and hosted the first transatlantic telephone call to New York. The former radio station was initially designed to be demolished and form part of the 6,200 homes. However, to address the need for a secondary school in the area and satisfy the s106 agreement in place, it was agreed that Morgan Sindall would form part of a team to transform the derelict radio station into a new secondary school.

Delivering both on time and to the £39m budget, the new educational campus includes a new teaching block with a main entrance and dining hall and will accommodate over 1,000 new pupils. There will be two new teaching blocks for STEM and Humanities, a new Sports Hall which will be up to the Sports England standard, teaching areas, office accommodation and changing rooms.

Our Approach

Houlton School has become the key ingredient in the recipe for a successful new community. Marrying listed building restoration, with state-of-the-art new development, the former Rugby Radio Station is now answering the secondary school place shortage.

Delivered on time, in budget and scoring 10/10 for customer satisfaction, this project overcame the challenges faced during the pandemic to not only become the heart of what will become a thriving new community, but the perfect legacy to an internationally significant heritage asset.

In fact, GMP and funding agreements with the DfE were agreed in the February of 2020, just as the world was heading into lockdown, meaning the project faced the most challenging of periods for the entirety of the build.

The initial plan had been to convert Rugby Radio Station into the heart of a 6,200-home estate, but in light of a secondary school’s place shortage, master developer Urban&Civic (U&C) had other ideas.

Despite outline consents s106 trigger for building a new secondary school being long into the future, U&C approached the DfE direct to agree an innovative and unique funding arrangement that would enable the school to be up and running, years early.

Following this, an innovatively tiered planning framework enabled the school to deliver before the district centre, with an advanced consent for enabling works to de-risk the main project. This proved critical in allowing the discoveries within the historic fabric to be properly consented.

Early collaboration and significant cost savings

By bringing Morgan Sindall Construction in early at Stage 2 to work alongside U&C and van Heyningen and Haward, the team were able to accurately overcome the industrial space challenge posed by the Grade II listed building, re-imaging its circulation, whilst overcoming its significant contamination and insulation challenges. Careful early work with heritage consultants meant its redevelopment complied with the DfE’s standard output specification.

The unique complexity of the project was overcome by a creative mix of collaboration that meant the supply chain were able to get involved during the design phase. This enabled de-risking of the programme through an early enabling phase on site, as well as a detailed value engineering exercised, including 17 workshops, that saved £2.7 million.

Social Impact

This project starts from the conviction that reuse is more sustainable than new building, justifying the retention of the heritage buildings, despite their challenges. Huge effort has been put into making sure the whole project, integrated into the masterplan, leaves a sustainable legacy as well as securing lasting heritage and community value.

The masterplan provides rich biodiversity in wide green corridors, that combine habitat richness, drainage attenuation and great amenity for the people. Early discussion enabled timely relocation of great crested news, a badgers set and minimised impact of lighting on bats. The buildings integrate bat and swift boxes too.

All the buildings have services spines, so can be internally remodelled in the future and each adopts a fabric first approach, prioritising quality of the building envelope with efficient plant. All buildings were modelled with Passivhaus software (PHPP) and TM54, considering both regulated and unregulated energy use to develop details and predict operational costs.

The quality of the C stations facades meant that adoption of internal wall insulation, along with new slab and roof insulation, was vital. Solid wall construction can be vulnerable when insulated, so this has been carefully modelled and detailed to minimise cold bridges and avoid potential damage. This solution combines façade repairs, better rainwater goods, internal moisture-open lime parge coat and wood fibre insulation. Adding this to new double-glazed windows and secondary glazing, this significantly improves performance which enabled each building met or exceeded its thermal target set.

The project delivered £22.4 million of social value back into the local community through a strategy that included, local SME procurement, 110 hours dedicated to charitable projects, 16 apprentice weeks, 124 pupils engaged in curriculum-based activities and its conviction around sustainability to reuse the Grade II listed asset and design using Passivhaus software mean this high performing asset is continuing to have a positive impact on its community.

We’ve delivered on our promise to make the history of this site part of its future. It has been possible because of the collective efforts, the collaboration, of a whole variety of partners that are invested in the transformation of Houlton and Rugby"
Johanne Thomas, Director of Communities and Partnerships, Urban&Civic, and Trustee, Houlton School

It speaks of quality the moment you walk through the door. Parents have said it’s like coming to an independent school without the fees. We are incredibly fortunate, all of our facilities are fantastic and state-of-the-art”
Michael McCully, Principal, Houlton School

In less than two years we’ve taken the old station and created the most wonderful educational environment. It’s so special as we are building upon an existing listed building – that almost never happens. One of the most marvellous things is that everyone has, not only been invested in making it the best it can be, but also respecting and bringing out the historic elements"
Nigel Hugill Chief Executive, Urban & Civic