Redeveloping the campus

Loyd House

Loyd House gained both a significant extension and a refurbishment to improve the overall quality of the facilities and to create different spaces for the pupils to enjoy.

Built on the North side of the existing House, formerly the College Sanatorium, the extension provided 14 new rooms, including two doubles, six new showers and four new bathroom facilities, two new flats to accommodate the resident Tutor and Matron and a new laundry facility. The common room was relocated from the annex and now sits at the heart of the House.

Once the extension was complete, the existing house was completely renovated with the old Matron’s flat refurbished into new pupil accommodation. Overall, the House has now increased in capacity by 18%.

Part of the challenge of the project was to ensure that the aesthetics of the building remained sympathetic to the original and therefore the contractor implemented similar dark brick patterns into the walls and windows. The result is spectacular with the new building seamlessly joining the original. The project gained recognition at the 2018 Brick Awards and was shortlisted for two categories (Education and Craftsmanship).

Palmer House

As part of the cycle of boarding house refurbishments, Palmer had a complete refit and redecoration as the College continues to provide top class modern boarding facilities. As with many of our projects in recent years, one of the main goals was to improve the social and communal spaces in order to bring people together and build a sense of community. The common room was modernised, the study areas were completely revamped and the bedrooms were redecorated with many gaining upgraded furniture.

Strength and Conditioning Suite

Upon completion of the new Loyd House common room, the former TV and games room in Crundells provided an ideal opportunity to open up the spaces and create a new Strength and Conditioning suite to provide specialist training facilities for our sports teams and elite athletes.

The College has, for a number of years, promoted and evolved its top teams and individual athletes. Following the recent successes of Bradfield’s major sports teams, we decided to invest in a stand-alone fitness suite, providing a space to accommodate entire squads of players who could work alongside the expert fitness coaches to improve their all-round sporting excellence.

Located in the same quadrant as the Sports Centre and gym, the suite includes a ten-metre runway for a resistance prowler, three weight stations with benches and an elite glute-ham machine as well as racks of free weights, kettle bells, resistance bands and gym balls.

Following its official opening in November we have already seen fantastic results, not just in the conditioning of individual athletes but also in squad unity of the teams that have used the facility which is great to see.

Dining Hall Extension

When the Dining Hall was originally built in 1856 it was designed with a capacity of 200 with long tables stretching the length of the building. The College is now home to over 800 pupils as well as a significant number of staff who all eat in that same hall.

The first phase in a multi-year renovation plan was to utilise the space vacated by Office Services who moved into a larger and purpose-built suite last year. The conversion had to incorporate a contemporary space that respected the nature of the existing listed building and would be open for everyone to use.

In order for the extension to be linked directly with the existing building, a new entrance had to be constructed. An archway was created towards the rear of the Dining Hall, ensuring the flow of foot traffic had ease of access to and from the new room to sit and eat and then take their trays to the wash area.

The space is designed to be versatile in its use and our intention was for the room to host meetings, smaller events and presentations outside of meal times. Since opening it in late October we are seeing the space increasingly used by pupils as a quiet study space. The new extension has allowed us to increase capacity by around 20% during peak meal times and while the space is contemporary, it reflects the historic nature of the building.

Music tech lab

A review of the Music curriculum in Faulkner’s identified the need for incorporation of Music Technology into the learning process. We completely renovated one of the upstairs classrooms in the Music School which is now home to 12 Apple iMac stations each complete with music writing and recording software, keyboard and mixing controls.

With the help of the IT Department all 12 iMacs are able to feed into the master computer so that work can be easily displayed and shared on the large smartboard at the front of the classroom.

One of the initial project challenges was to work out how to best configure each workstation to accommodate all the equipment without it feeling cluttered. We commissioned a set of specially designed desks with curved shelves on top of which the iMac sits with the keyboard and mixing controls underneath. This provides ample free desk space at each station for a computer keyboard and mouse as well as any papers from which the pupils are working.

CHAPEL

The College Chapel is used on a regular basis for a variety of different services and functions, however the lighting was limited and ineffective as it could only be either on or off. The entire Chapel has now been rewired with new controlled lighting that can easily be changed to reflect the ambiance of the event. In addition, the roof vault and mosaics are enhanced thanks to a series of feature lights.