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Tapton Academy got in touch with us as they wanted us to create an outdoor covered walkway where students could queue in wet weather.
The requirement
The school needed a canopy that would provide a covered outdoor space in an L shape around the building. This would provide a sheltered area where students could stand outside and queue for the dining hall year-round.
The canopy would also serve as a covered walkway around part of the outside of the building.
The challenge
One challenge was related to the fact the school was under a PFI (private finance initiative) build. That meant that each part of the project had to be signed off by the facilities management company, Interserve, to allow their maintenance contract to be fulfilled.
The school site is in Sheffield, in a location particularly close to the Peak District. This meant that the terrain was likely to be at a high altitude – something that would need to be checked and considered during installation.
The school also had a brise soleil system installed above the ground floor windows that needed to be removed in order to make room for the canopy.
The solution
We worked with the facilities management company throughout to ensure that they were happy with the entire process – including the proposal, risk assessments and method statements.
We provided site specific structural calculations for wind and snow loadings. From the data, it was evident that the site was over 200m above sea level, so the canopy was installed with these site conditions in mind.
To make way for the canopy, the existing brise soleil system was carefully unbolted and stored on site should the school want to reinstall it in the future. We then installed our Connekt cantilevered system, which projected from vertical brackets fixed to the building and posts against the building. The canopy’s green shade was matched to the school’s windows for a consistent overall appearance.
Results
Pupils at Tapton Academy now have a dedicated and sheltered space where they can queue for the dinner hall while being protected from the elements. They can also move around outside between lessons without being affected by wet weather.
