Parents and local people have praised plans for a new education centre at a Norfolk school, funded by an £18.75m donation from Sir James Dyson.

Gresham’s School in Holt welcomed the public to give feedback on proposals for the new purpose-built Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) teaching and learning facilities.

The event on Wednesday displayed some early proposals for the new Dyson centre.

Plans were created after the £18.75 million pledge from Sir James, the billionaire inventor and former Gresham’s pupil.

The founder and chief executive of Dyson Ltd has always been grateful to Gresham’s, after the school continued to fund his education after the death of his father at age nine.

Steven Harter, who lives in Holt, said: “I think it is great. I like modern concept buildings. It makes use of old buildings that are not fit for use and are hard to manage. “If it saves energy in the long run then I am happy.”

Sue Crick, who lives next to the school, said: “I think it is fantastic for the children and wonderful for the town, It’s not just for the kids here because they offer these facilities to the community for lots of different things.”

Recently, Sir James said of his father: “When he returned from fighting with the 14th Army in Burma during the war, he threw himself into the life of the school.

“When he was ill, he carried on teaching but died when I was nine.

“I am hugely grateful to Gresham’s for the enlightening and inspiring education that I enjoyed so much.”

At the time of the donation, Douglas Robb, Gresham’s headmaster, said the donation was “by far” the largest the school had ever received, and it would have an “immense impact” for decades to come.

The plans help strengthen pupil numbers and meet the pressing and urgent need to update existing facilities.

The current building which contains a drama studio and student area, will be replaced with new classrooms and labs.

The Dyson building will not obstruct the view of the grade two listed Chapel.

Representatives of the school were on hand to explain the scheme and answer any questions members of the public may have on the plans.

Plans can be viewed at www.lanproservices.co.uk/greshams/

Source: Eastern Daily Press

Wilkinson Eyre has created “unique student residencies with identity” from prefabricated timber pods at the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology in Wiltshire, England.

Located at the Malmesbury Campus, the modular village provides accommodation for undergraduate students and visiting staff at the institute, which was founded by James Dyson.

Wilkinson Eyre  designed the pods, which are arranged in clusters, from cross-laminated timber (CLT) as it is sustainable and can be rapidly assembled on-site.

“We chose to explore modular construction in student housing to create unique student residencies with identity,” said Wilkinson Eyre director Yasmin Al-Ani Spence.

“Modular CLT pods were chosen to push the boundaries of the existing typology. CLT is a naturally highly sustainable material with strong structural qualities, making it an unrivalled choice for the project,” she told Dezeen.

“We wanted to demonstrate the beauty of modular construction when designed and delivered to the highest quality.”

Each 32 square-metre-unit was manufactured off-site, before being delivered to the campus and craned into its current position – combined with up to five other pods in a staggered arrangement.

While creating an informal residential character similar to a village, this layout also ensures the housing slots in with the landscape that is characterised by a raised bank.

“The existing site posed a series of inherent challenges and design considerations, including the construction of units against a raised embankment,” explained Al-Ani Spence.

“This led the design team to explore bespoke construction methods including the design and build of cantilevered pods and providing appealing and practical access to pods at differing heights.”

Each of the clusters is two to three storeys high, with some pods cantilevering up to three metres to showcase the structural potential of the material.

The pods at the bottom of each cluster open out to a landscaped garden, and those above are accessed via stairs and curved, earth ramps.

Each unit is clad in waterproof aluminium panels and, depending on the position within each cluster, have sedum-covered roofs.

Inside, the timber structure is left exposed to create warm interiors that contrast with the cladding, and show the material in its natural state.

Each cluster comprises a shared kitchen and laundry room, alongside a reception and storage space.

Meanwhile, the individual pods house a bedroom and work area with built-in storage and bespoke furniture, and an entrance area with a shower and toilet.

The pods are all accessed by their own front door, and fronted by large windows that Wilkinson Eyre angled to maximise natural light and frame views of the campus.

They are also energy efficient, “harnessing CLT’s thermal massing” and use natural ventilation.

At the heart of the village, Wilkinson Eyre also designed the Roundhouse – a social space for students enclosed within a transparent, circular pavilion.

It has a lightweight steel structure formed from two stacked cylinders, topped by a brise-soleil roof. Inside it has a cafe, bar, lecture hall and study space.

Wilkinson Eyre is an architecture studio founded by Chris Wilkinson in 1987 with Jim Eyre, which has offices in London and Hong Kong.

The undergraduate village forms part of the Malmesbury Campus, masterplanned by the studio as part of its twenty-year relationship with Dyson.

Other recent projects by the practice include a proposal for Lord’s Cricket Ground stands, designs for a glass elevator for Battersea Power Station and the transformation of a trio of Victorian gasholder frames at London’s King’s Cross into luxury apartments.

SOURCE: Dezeen

Morgan Sindall Construction has been awarded two education contracts in Ayrshire worth a combined £64 million.

The contractor has been appointed by hub South West and South Ayrshire Council to build two new campuses for primary, secondary and early years teaching. The deals are for Prestwick Educational Campus and Maybole Community Campus.

Work on the Prestwick campus is expected to start in summer 2020 and complete by the end of 2022. The campus, which will be built on the site of the existing Glenburn Primary School, will have capacity for up to 823 children. It will accommodate the former Glenburn intake and also allow St Ninian’s Primary to relocate there. The campus will also include an early years centre.

The second contract for Maybole Community Campus is also expected to get underway in summer 2020, with completion in spring 2023. The campus is to be built on the site of the existing Carrick Academy and will have capacity for up to 1,370 children and young people. As well as providing space for a new secondary school, the campus serving Maybole and Carrick will bring together Cairn, Gardenrose and St Cuthbert’s primary schools together with early years provision. The Maybole campus will also feature a swimming pool which will be accessible to the public.

Both projects will be designed by architectural firm BDP.

Stuart Parker, Morgan Sindall Construction’s MD in Scotland said, “We’re very proud to be working with South Ayrshire Council and hub South West to deliver such a transformative investment in South Ayrshire’s education provision. We have extensive expertise in designing and building primary, secondary and early years schools, and this brief fits that perfectly. But a large part of our successful bid was our commitment to a deliver a community training programme alongside the build process with TIGERS Ltd (Training Initiatives Generating Effective Results Scotland) – a training provider and employment broker we have a longstanding relationship with.  Through this programme we’ll be training young, local people in construction and related skills to enable them to pursue a career in the industry.

“Delivering activity which provides measurable social value like this is of equal, if not greater importance, than the physical buildings we construct and we’re incredibly pleased to be able to do so yet again through this project.”

Councillor Peter Henderson, resources and performance portfolio holder for South Ayrshire Council added, “This is an exciting development and an important milestone for South Ayrshire Council, as we continue to transform learning for our children and young people. The campus-style approach will work really well in both Maybole and Prestwick, being at the same location means the schools will all have access to high quality internal and external facilities.”

Michael McBrearty, chief executive of hub South West commented, “We are delighted to be partners in the delivery of these two new educational campuses at Prestwick and Maybole. Each will provide excellent facilities for the wider community and will transform education in their local areas.

“At hub South West we have already enjoyed the privilege of delivering such high-grade educational facilities in South Ayrshire, notably at Ayr Academy, Dailly Primary School and Marr College. Like their neighbours in North Ayrshire, the communities of Prestwick and Maybole can look forward to enjoying the enormous benefits of outstanding educational facilities as well as wonderful new opportunities in sport and outdoor learning, all of which will be absolutely first-class.”

SOURCE: Project Scotland

A NEW £23million state-of-the-art Glasgow school is expected to get the go ahead today(18.06.19).

Councillors are due to agree on the new facility which would be developed for Maryhill pupils and fills a gap left when Wynford Primary School closed in 2009.

Situated on the playing fields at Queen Margaret Drive, the building would replace the former Wyndford Primary School, while providing a new facility to accommodate Glasgow’s soaring population.

Included in the proposals, which would benefit 378 children, is an 11-a-side 3G pitch, games area and flexible teaching spaces.

Proposals would also see the existing blaes pitches at the Queen Margaret Drive playing fields upgraded to a 3G synthetic surface which would be floodlit and available for community use outwith school hours.

Inside the school would sport a multi-purpose hall, library and multiple spaces for teachers and staff to relax during lunch.

In the last 17-years the number of people living in Glasgow rose from 578,000 in 2001 to 626,000 in 2018 with an increasing demand for more non-denominational schools across the city.

A key responsibility of Glasgow City Council is to ensure there is a sufficient number of primary and secondary school places to meet demand short and long term.

Despite agreeing a new school should be created, concerns have been raised from politicians and members of the public regarding the suitability of the proposed facility ahead of this morning’s planning committee.

Councillor Ken Andrew said: “I am aware there has been more development in the area recently and I do agree there is a need for a new school but it would be in the wrong side of the catchment area.

“The old Wyndford Primary school is still standing. The council would save money if they spent £5m renovating the old building rather than forking out £23m on a new one which wouldn’t even be in the right place.

“Dunard Primary School is another non denominational school which is near this site. This planning application makes absolutely no sense.

“It would be nice to have a nice new shiny school but it needs to be on the correct site.”

A total of nine objections have been submitted to planning department.

Residents are worried that the development will “add significantly” to rising emission levels as the school would be on a busy road making it difficult to access by foot.

Mr Andrew continued: “About a year ago I went to one of the public consultations regarding this proposal. There was a great deal of anger from people who attended.

“I am concerned that the problem with the catchment area will not be taken into consideration by the planning committee.

“They should also be considering methods of transport to and from the school and how children will get there safely.

“We are supposed to be encouraging active travel but this development will encourage more parents to drive their child to school.

“Maryhill Road is already a busy thoroughfare and this will cause even more congestion and mayhem. “

SOURCE: Evening Times

We hear a lot about the role of females in the UK construction industry, or lack of, but this story from across the Atlantic should be an inspiration to any female thinking of construction for a career, not sure what health and safety would have to say about the high heels though!!!

The construction business is no bed of roses — cutthroat competition makes it hard to stay on top. But one construction and design firm has been making its mark on some of our biggest landmarks.

Cheryl McKissack Daniel now sits atop the oldest African-American-owned and female-run construction company in the nation — a business her family truly built from the ground up. In the male dominated world of construction, McKissack Daniel feels right at home — even in a hard hat and heels.

As president of McKissack & McKissack, she manages projects ranging from a park in downtown Brooklyn to getting many of New York’s trains to run on time. Her company is on board to revamp Long Island’s railroad hub, which runs underneath the Brooklyn Nets’ home.

In fact, McKissack Daniel’s business is assigned to just about every major infrastructure improvement project financed by the city and state, including the current construction at LaGuardia Airport and the new Terminal One at JFK.

McKissack Daniel says competing in construction’s big leagues “takes relationships, and getting people to realize that you bring value to the table something unique and different.”

The nation’s oldest African-American-owned and female-run construction management firm dates back more than two centuries to a Tennessee slave named Moses.

Moses McKissack was taught the trade of making bricks by his Scottish slave master. The trade was passed down to her grandfather and great uncle, who incorporated the family business in 1905. Over the next 60 years, they built homes, hospitals, and colleges. McKissack said her grandfather built the Tuskegee air force base where black pilots trained to desegregate World War II.

In 1968, McKissack Daniel’s father William took over, laying the foundation for his three daughters. “We would go to work with him every Saturday starting at ten years old, walking construction sites, tracing documents, you know, learning about building systems early in life,” McKissack Daniel said. “It was all ingrained in us.”

When her father suffered a stroke in 1982, her mother, Leatrice B. McKissack, stepped in.

“I don’t know if my husband’s gonna live or die,” she recalled. “But the next morning at 8:00, I had five major architectural and engineering companies callin’ me, ’cause the message had already got out that my husband was seriously ill.” The business was so good, she said, that they all wanted it.

But with no training in architecture, the former school teacher used good sense and her master’s in psychology to find her way. She found courage in liquid form.  “[My husband] had a bar in the conference room. So I said […] ‘I’m goin’ in this bathroom and get fortified for this crazy board meeting,’” she said. She did well, managing a $50 million complex at Howard University and a project at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

By 2000, McKissack Daniel took over the helm, and moved the headquarters from Nashville to New York. But breaking into the the Big Apple was only made possible by affirmative action, she said.

“People do business with people who look like them.” she said. “All the work that we’ve done outside of New York, it didn’t matter in New York.”

Cheryl McKissack Daniel CBS News

But McKissack Daniel’s work mattered to the communities she served, beginning with her own. Sixty-one percent of her hires are minorities, and 34% are women. When her company worked on the $325 million patient pavilion at Harlem Hospital Center, it accepted job applications from locals in the neighborhood. She said she received 7,000 applications from people looking for work.

She hired 200 of those people, and later, she developed a job training workforce program to try to place the rest in other fields across the city.

She wants to show women of color “that the construction industry can build wealth” and that the construction industry can look like them.

But it’s not an easy sell, even for her own family. McKissack Daniel has two daughters, and her sisters have three – but “not one” is showing signs of wanting to take the reins, she said.

“I may have to hold on for the grandkids,” she said with a laugh.

SOURCE: WCBI NEWS