Client: Mossbourne Community Academy Ltd
Architects: Richard Rogers Partnership
Main contractors: MACE
Structural engineers: Whitbybird
Joinery: Construction Timber Manufacturers Ltd

• Glulam frame – European whitewood
• Two levels of parallel H frames

Developed as part of the new government initiative for City Academies, Mossbourne is a secondary school concentrating on Information and Computer Technology and a textbook example of low-energy design.

The main structural component is the timber glulam frame, consisting of over 1,000m3 of renewable European whitewood formed into paired columns and beams.

The timber was sourced, laminated and machined in Holland, arriving on site ready to be bolted together and erected. The main structure consists of two rows of parallel ‘H’ frames spanned by secondary beams. This structure frames a series of classrooms, with the secondary beams projecting past the frame to carry an internal walkway. Externally the beams penetrate through the building skin to form a series of external walkways. The use of timber has enabled continuous structural members to extend from interior to exterior, without the need for a thermal break. The timber is untreated internally and has only minimal applied external protection. To reduce maintenance, each external beam and column is covered with a capping of iroko hardwood, as a protection against the effects of standing water.

• Short-listed for the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Awards 2005.