We provided civil and structural engineering design services for this project that involved the replacement of the existing music school with a combined 6th form and music building within the heart of the school campus. The new music school includes a variety of classrooms, offices seminar and practice rooms, a recording studio, a 160-seat auditorium with retractable seating system and a cafeteria.

The acoustic performance of the building, particularly acoustic isolation between rooms, was a key consideration and we worked closely with the architect and acoustic consultant to provide the most appropriate form of construction for the building.

The building comprised a two storey steel frame superstructure with precast concrete 1st floor slab, metal stud partitions, a ground bearing floor slab and traditional pad/strip foundations. The building incorporates natural ventilation to most areas and PV panels located to the roof.

The headmaster of Gresham’s School Douglas Robb commented “The Britten Building will enhance facilities for music and socialising for the school and the wider North Norfolk community.  The performance space and recording facilities are of the highest quality available and we hope that as many people as possible are inspired to use them”.

The building was awarded the Constructing Excellence East of England Regional Award 2018, New Non-residential category award winner at the Norfolk Association of Architects Design and Craftmanship Awards 2017, Highly commended at the Architectural Acoustics Awards 2017 and highly commended in the Award for Excellence in Architectural technology 2018.