Curtins are the Structural and Infrastructure engineers on one of the four sample schemes at Luton BSF. We are working with Architects ACP and M&E engineers Briggs and Forrester on the project, Challney High School for Girls. The school is a £19.1m new build school for 1,050 students. The team is working to achieve the BREEAM criteria of ‘Very Good’ for the school.

There are three main classroom wings to the school which are two storeys high, a central double height circulation and entrance area and two adjoining halls. The structural solution we have chosen for the classrooms is a reinforced concrete flat slab, spanning approximately 8m between columns.

The main circulation spaces are glulam timber beams with a profiled deck system that spans in its own right without the need for purlins. There is a circular ‘rotunda’ entrance structure that is reinforced concrete at first floor and has architectural ‘Y’ columns supporting the circular glulam roof.

The existing site is sloping, and predominantly chalk with topsoil over. The school is sited on an existing made ground platform. The school is to be founded on mass concrete pad foundations varying in depth to 3m to found into the virgin chalk. There is an extensive cut and fill exercise to be carried out on the project.

Key contributions that we have made to the bid is our ability and skill at providing a relatively simple structural solution to what could be considered a complex plan. We looked at alternative structural schemes for the classroom blocks including a steel frame, a precast concrete frame and also a detailed design exercise to cost an alternative with a central downstand beam and perimeter upstand concrete beams at first floor.