Godalming College.

Fabric Project brief Godalming College - one of the top education and training providers in Surrey - appointed Macallan Penfold Chartered Architects to create a ‘Chill Out Zone’ for its students. This would focus around a large piazza for relaxing, socialising and eating.
Macallan Penfold had previously completed a number of college projects with Fabric Architecture and looked to repeat this success by including a series of canopies in its design for an outdoor dining area.

The food court is at the heart of the college campus and the design needed to offer both comfortable dining areas and clear thoroughfares between the surrounding buildings. The design
of the structures also needed to unify the college buildings’ various architectural styles; Victorian,
1970s and new build.

Macallan Penfold specified Fabric Architecture’s ‘Signature Structure’ canopies for this and
to ensure that installation would be both time and cost efficient. These striking preengineered
tensiles allowed over 200 sq m to be covered using a quick and simple ‘step and
repeat’ method.

Yellow PVC Skylars were installed to offer walkway direction for students whilst Pods were
used as individual shades for student’s dining tables. It was necessary for the structures to
integrate with existing seating and lighting so careful planning of the layout was required to
ensure that this demand was met.
The college required the installation to be undertaken by as few tensile engineers as
possible, both to keep install costs to a minimum and to reduce the overall number of
contractors on site. To respond to this demand, Fabric Architecture offered a turnkey
solution by creating and fitting bespoke dining tables to complement the structures provided.

The install was scheduled to take place in the school holidays and the install team had to fit around the hard landscaping which was taking place at the same time. To address the college’s requirements, the install team consisted of just two. Fabric Architecture met all targets by taking only one week to install the series of structures. The project was delivered on time and allowed the new dining area to be fully operational by the time the students arrived for a new term.

2008


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