No matter how well designed a school building may be, a school will eventually outgrow it, or it will need to reconfigure its physical layout to meet changing needs.
That can mean months of noise, dust, areas of the school blocked off and unusable, and contractors coming and going from the site. To reduce the negative impacts of building work, many schools have turned to the alternative approach of modular construction.
Your building delivered
With traditional construction, materials are delivered on site and everything is built from scratch. A modular building is built in a factory and then assembled. This makes it much quicker to get the structure up and ready.
And, of course, builders can’t usually start work until demolition, ground clearance and foundations are complete. With a modular build, we can create the building off-site while the ground is prepared. That’s a faster project from start to finish, with less time on school premises.
You’re also much less likely to get weather-related delays because the main building work has happened indoors in the factory. We can deliver a project in weeks rather than months and are often asked to install over the summer holidays.
Designed to your specifications
As the word ‘modular’ implies, our buildings are designed with prefabricated components, and that makes it a very flexible way to build. Buildings can be tailored to specific needs. Perhaps a school needs a classroom for children with special needs, or particular access requirements.
Perhaps it’s an art classroom, which will need washable floors and facilities for cleaning up. Or a nursery space that will be opened up into the playground in the warmer months to encourage more outdoor play. Toilets for adults or children? Sound insulation for a music room? No problem. A modular building can be easily configured to meet your needs, without the expense of architects’ fees or a protracted design stage.
If you need the space now but have a bigger redevelopment coming, we can even design your building so that it can be relocated later. That’s not something that you can do with bricks and mortar. Just talk to us about the possibilities so we can make it as easy as possible.
Great learning environment
If you’ve ever worked in a school with an older building, you’ll know the sorts of challenges that can arise – drowsy children in stifling classrooms in the summer, and draughts and chills in the winter.
The high levels of insulation in our modular classrooms ensure a comfortable temperature year-round, keeping heat inside during colder months and preventing overheating when it’s warm.
We orient rooms to make the most of natural light, which cuts costs and improves concentration. With some forward planning, we can also incorporate wires and fixings for screens and interactive whiteboards into the walls, keeping them neat and out of the way.
Environmental excellence
Finally, when a building is prefabricated, it can be engineered to a high standard before assembly. We use stucturally integrated insulated panels – or SIPS – which combine the insulation into the wall of the building, rather than adding it as a separate layer. It’s faster, reduces material wastage and delivers a high efficiency rating.
We complement those insulated walls with A-rated windows and doors for maximum efficiency.
Going the extra mile on these details is better for the environment and helps to transition schools towards the low-carbon future that we know is necessary. It also reduces costs.
Good design and high efficiency will deliver energy savings for the lifetime of the building, making a Green Modular building a sound return on investment at a time of budget constraints.
See www.green-modular.co.uk for examples and case studies, and to get in touch.
