Students at a west London academy have this week completed the structural shell of a single-story timber-framed house in the school playground, in a £250 000 project it’s hoped could become a template for other schools.
The 11-to-17-year-olds at Burlington Danes Academy in White City have topped out the three-bedroom house that will eventually be used as a boarding house, giving eight students at a time a short taste of life away from home.
The two-year SchoolHouse project was initiated last September, and has been supported by a long list of construction product companies and other donors, including Norbord, Velfac and Wates.
It was the brainchild of school principal Dame Sally Coates and architect Roderick James, who met when both were acting as trustees of an unrelated charity.
“The children in the after-school club have been particularly well-motivated. This week will be a major tipping point, when they realise they really have built a house.”
Roderick James, Roderick James Architects
The project has involved 30 students undertaking a GCSE in Construction and the Built Environment, but also around 40 other students from years 7 upwards who volunteered to join an after-school construction club. The students have been guided by two full-time instructors, and additional visiting tutors.
In the school’s workshops, students have hand-built all the components for the house’s timber frame, wall panels, rafters and roof, which have now been erected on site. The next phase will be to pump the wall cavities with recycled newspaper insulation.
Roderick James, who runs Devon-based timber-frame specialist Roderick James Architects, told CM: “The children in the after-school club have been particularly well-motivated. This week will be a major tipping point, when they realise they really have built a house.”
James hopes that the project could be repeated by future generations of pupils at Burlington Danes, and also that other schools across the country could launch similar projects.
“As part of the project we have commissioned a broadcast quality film documenting everything, which will be shown to other academies to show them how it works.
“We want to set up a charity to promote the idea, but one thing we’d do differently is to build the house under a big top. It would be easier to manage the site than having the work ongoing in various workshops,” he said.
Burlington Danes serves a relatively deprived catchment area, with 70% of students qualifying for the pupil premium, meaning that their families have a household income of less than £16,000.
Once the house is completed, the school plans to use it as “a short-term boarding facility where teachers and six to eight students can spend evenings of discussion, music and cooking in an informal atmosphere far removed from many of their home environments”.
Around £250,000 had been raised so far, from donations in cash and in kind, but James said that any further help would be warmly welcomed. Supporters include Velfac which has contributed windows worth £9,000, and contractor Wates Group which has made a donation of £5,000.
Travis Perkins has supplied materials valued at £15,000, while £15,000 worth of timber has been donated by BSW, and Makita provided power tools worth £4,000.
