Photography: Morley von Sternberg

Technical Frame

A framework for schools

LOVE THEM OR HATE them, everyone’s talking about standardised school building systems. And the system that’s picking up the majority of contracts is Scape, the successor to the CLASP system developed in the 1960s and 70s to deliver the UK’s urgent need for schools to serve a growing population. The Scape system is a component-based steel frame, designed to allow for any kind of cladding specification and suitable for schools and mid-sized health service buildings. The Scape System Build company,

jointly owned by Derby City, Derbyshire County, Gateshead, Nottingham City, Nottinghamshire County and Warwickshire County Councils, acts either as a design and procurement consultant to public sector clients or — via its Sunesis joint venture with Willmott Dixon — offers a turnkey design and construct option. Its marketing claim is that Sunesis can reduce typical build costs by up to 30% and programme by an average 20 weeks. In light of government cuts and last

year’s James Review for Education, Scape is making some big promises for standardised construction, claiming to “cut the costs, risks and protracted timescales of bespoke design, while providing the flexibility to personalise your buildings”. That offer is helping it secure contracts to design and deliver projects UK-wide, most recently with £100m of public works with one of the partners, Nottinghamshire County Council. Meanwhile, Sunesis is the vehicle

through which any public sector body can procure construction works, ensuring compliance with OJEU regulations. Marketing itself as a one-stop-shop, it not only promises leaner processes and programme, but, critically, a fixed price. For the client its website is also tantalisingly interactive — in a few clicks, it seems possible for a prospective purchaser to design their own school. Bedford Borough Council commissioned

Scape for its 420-pupil Great Denham primary school and nursery on the outskirts of the town, appointing Bond

Component-based steel frame buildings, first developed in the 1950s, are enjoying a revival. Jan-Carlos Kucharek visits Great Denham, a school being built using the Scape Technology system

Main picture: the Scape system, having learned lessons from its CLASP heritage, has managed to rationalise the structure to a marked level of finesse

Left: simple 3D visualisation of Bond Bryan’s Great Denham school. The single- storey “race track” of classrooms gains most of its rigidity from the double- height hall structure

Bryan as its architect and Willmott Dixon — which is also sole delivery partner in the Scape national contractor framework — as contractor. The school is a textbook example of

the system in action. Due for occupation this September, its steel frame, with two single-storey courtyards of classrooms sitting on either side of a double-height central hall, had to be erected within a tight 30-week programme. Having broken ground less then six weeks before CM’s visit, progress so far has been impressive. “We are in the ninth day of steel erection, with the steel columns and beams of the

main hall up in less than two days,” says Wilmott Dixon project manager Mark Pinder. “The intention was to have all the structure up in 18 days, but we’ve had two days of downtime due to high winds, but we should still be complete within four working weeks.” Standardised components means using a spacing of square columns, generally at 3.6m, hidden within the perimeter cladding zone. Any internal columns are likewise tucked inside classroom partition walls. The pervading solid thin steel sections only become deeper where columns are “dropped”. If larger sections

The Great Denham school site, view of the structure looking north-west

> CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | APRIL 2012 | 31