Portakabin Group has been awarded a £14m design and build contract for the Global Academy, said to be the UK’s first university technical college (UTC) to be built off site. It has been designed by Portakabin with architects firm Surface to Air.
The school will be on the site of the Old Vinyl Factory in Hayes in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Portakabin will also need to carry out complex groundworks and extensive excavations for district heating and also build of a new sub-station.
Set to open in September 2016, the Global Academy will provide academic and vocational training for 14-19 year olds who want to work in the media. It is sponsored by Global, the company that owns commercial radio stations such as Heart, Capital, Classic FM and LBC.
The school will have extensive facilities for TV and radio broadcasting, including radio studios and TV studios. The architects were given “a demanding acoustic specification” for the broadcast studios, with triple glazing and specially-engineered air conditioning.
Portakabin director Simon Ambler said, “We are delighted to have been awarded the contract for the UK’s first UTC to be built off site. This is part of a really exciting regeneration scheme, which will create a landmark education facility to give young people fantastic, practical training for the broadcast and digital media industries.”
He added: “This is a hugely significant project for the construction sector. It demonstrates the architectural flexibility of a highly engineered Yorkon off-site solution from the Portakabin Group and how an outstanding building design can successfully integrate different construction methods. It also illustrates really well how we can deliver an inspiring, animated and intelligent building in a very short timescale and on a highly complex site.”
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
