La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls’ School, London

After the successful completion of the refurbishment of a science block and a new resource centre, La Retraite RC Girls’ School in Clapham Park invited Burns Guthrie to prepare designs for a new Movement, Music and Dance building. The building includes dance and drama suites with their own separate entrances, two music classrooms, changing rooms and staff offices.

The challenge for us and the team was that the project was on a very tight schedule for expenditure of funds, exacerbated by lengthy discussions with Sport England during the planning application process.

The building was procured through a two-stage tender, and we collaborated closely with the selected contractor. The project was open just 12 months after we were first commissioned. To facilitate rapid construction, off-site fabrication was used in the form of a cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glulam superstructure. This was the first of four CLT projects we have successfully completed.