Guildford High School, Music & Drama
GU1- Sectors
- Education
- Status
- Completed
- Client
- United Learning & Ash Contracting Ltd
- Delivery Partners
- Franklin Ellis Architects
- Project Value
- £ 4m
Dice collaborated with leading architect Franklin Ellis to deliver a new three storey Department of Music & Drama on the footprint of an existing, dilapidated building.
The new building is arranged across three storeys and provides two state of the art drama studios at ground floor, orchestral performance space at first floor and music practice rooms, offices and general teaching accommodation throughout the building.
The new building features an interesting mansard roof and projecting canopy which is reflected internally. This created several engineering challenges, as the brief also called for column free spaces.
The Design
A structural steel frame solution facilitated large open plan spaces and also enabled the mansard roof forms to be expressed internally. Steelwork is generally sandwiched between roof and internal ceiling finishes creating a series of interesting spatial volumes with clean, modern soffit lines.
A series of projecting roof planes are formed from hot rolled steelwork and softwood rafters which also frame large window openings.
In order to minimise storey heights to match adjacent buildings, Westok cellular beams were specified. This allows building services to be integrated within the structural zone.
An efficient solution comprising reinforced concrete pad foundations founded on weathered bedrock was specified. In order to allow the steel frame to be installed after the ground slab, reinforced concrete plinths were provided above foundation level.
