New Science Centre Making Great Progress
18 Nov
Thanks to the hard work of the construction team and their contractors, work on the Princethorpe's new Science Centre continues to make great progress. As at Week 38 of the build, work on the roof is almost complete with the majority of the tiles now in place, and we are looking forward to the official topping-out ceremony which will take place at the end of November.
The College's new Science Centre is situated at the top of The Lime Walk. Due to officially open in September 2023, the ten teaching laboratories will provide state of the art science facilities for the next generation of pupils to come through our doors.
On Wednesday 16 November we sent our photographer on site with Foundation Assistant Head, Alex Darkes, who is overseeing the project, to record the progress so far. The structure and layout of the ten new teaching laboratories was clear to see with the internal walls all now in place. The large spacious laboratories, five on each floor, supported by preparation areas, workshops and storage spaces. The break-out area on the first floor, the staff bases, offices and plant room are all now visible within the structure, as are the breakthrough points from The Limes. With the roofing slates almost all in place and the roof lights due to be fitted next week the building is really starting to take shape.
The first fix of the electrical and mechanical works is well underway. The new Science Centre will be an ‘intelligent’ building, driven by an integrated digital Building Management System to optimise heating and ventilation; underfloor heating will shortly be put in place and work is well underway to install the latest standards of insulation. Infrastructure will allow a progression, in time, to Ground Source Heat Pumps, for reliability. There will be LED illumination throughout, with presence sensors and daylight sensors to control light levels. An energy performance monitor in the ground floor circulation area will be visible to all will give a real-time picture of the building’s energy performance.
The building's location at the top of The Lime Walk places it central to the College's campus and the views from the laboratories are stunning but on their tours this week Mr Darkes made it up on to the roof where the views were even better, as you can see in this clip, it's all very exciting for us here at Princethorpe!