Bloxham Primary School Hall

A huge thank you to Thinking Buildings for sharing these fantastic renders of the proposed new hall at Bloxham Primary School. Situated in the heart of the quintessential Oxfordshire village, Bloxham Primary School is one of the largest village primary schools in Oxfordshire with 420 students. As the school has grown rapidly over the last few years, the facilities are no longer meeting the school’s needs.

The current school building was built in the mid-century and revolves around the existing hall space, forming a central ‘hub’. This hall is no longer fit for purpose as a teaching space as classes are often interrupted, given it is the main circulation through the school.

Image Credit - Thinking Buildings

Architectural Design

Thinking Buildings have designed a new, modern school hall as a Design & Build Project for Oxfordshire County Council, with Beard and CBG Consultants. SOLID are appointed as Structural and Civil Engineers. The new hall will include a dedicated sports and furniture store and will allow the current hall to be used as a studio space for music classes, which is a key focus in the school’s curriculum. The design will also see the school kitchen (currently located in the school hall and below national space standards) relocated to a room in the existing building.

SOLID’s Engineering Approach

Our SOLID civils team is currently investigating whether the site has an existing soakaway. It is believed that a soakaway may be located under the existing carpark, which is where the new hall is to be positioned. Geotech engineers have been appointed to conduct tests to investigate this possibility further, the outcome of these tests will determine the next steps in our design. Should a soakaway be discovered, we will conduct a further infiltration test and then discharge the extension into an infiltration cellular storage. If no soakaway is found the water will, instead, be directly discharged to an existing ditch via new and existing pipework.

Image Credit - Krasimir Krastev - SOLID Civils Team

The structures team at SOLID. have designed the structure of the new hall, nearly 12m wide and 16m long. It is formed using a braced steel frame, with efficient curved steel beams spanning between the columns.  Profiled steel structural decking spans between the curved roof beams, to provide an uncluttered and lightweight structure.  Along the South elevation a transfer structure is incorporated to allow a large, column-free glazed façade, flooding the space with light.

Due to the change in levels across the site, and location of existing trees, stepped foundations have been utilised to minimize the required depth of the new strip foundations. Special care will be required during construction at the interface with the existing buildings. 

Image credit - Thinking Buildings

The proposed scheme went to planning at the end of last year and we look forward to updating you on progress very soon.