Background
Anderson Acoustics were commissioned by Girls Day School Trust (GDST) to provide acoustic advice for the proposed redevelopment of Notting Hill and Ealing Junior School.
This project is for a new £8.2m junior school building, including general teaching spaces, hall, music and creative arts department plus sixth form classrooms to be built on the existing site of Notting Hill and Ealing High School. The proposed design had a strong emphasis on sustainability and significantly enhanced landscaping to enable external play and exploration.
We provided client-side acoustic consultancy support from RIBA Stage 2-4, and are continuing Construction Stage 5 with Neilcott Construction. The acoustic design needed to ensure that the Requirements of the Building Regulations (Regulation E4) and the Independent School Standards Regulations are achieved, plus acoustic credits Hea05 and Pol05 in order to obtain BREEAM excellent.
The Challenge
The site is subject to distant road traffic noise from the A40 (approximately 1.3 km to the north of the site), local road traffic noise (B455 and roundabout), and distant aircraft noise from London Heathrow Airport. The school is also located on a tight site with noise sensitive residential receptors located in very close proximity to the demolition and construction works and because of this we are now providing the noise, vibration and dust monitoring during the construction phase to ensure mitigation is in place.
The Solution
Our input to date has focussed on a number of key considerations:
- The music classroom and practice rooms needed to achieve a high acoustic performance. In order to maximise flexibility of use and provide quality space commensurate with other providers, target acoustic performance standards sought to improve on minimum requirements to satisfy building regulations.
- The Composite Laminated Timber (CLT) structure has been developed with bespoke plasterboard linings to achieve the required sound insulation performance targets for separating walls using software prediction analysis and out experience on other large CLT school developments. The floated concrete floor will enable good quality control of footsteps sound and other low frequency structure borne noise transmission, which can sometimes be an issue for CLT floors.
- The acoustic design had to address sustainability as a key brief aspiration and promote and encourage wellbeing by providing accessible acoustic solutions appropriate for the needs of existing and potential users of the building and outside spaces.
Our Education Sector Lead, Emma Greenland, has demonstrable strong experience in this area and has carried out recent research to provide reasonable adjustments to improve access to listening in mainstream classrooms, specific to the needs of the students so is working closely with the client on this issue.
Testimonial
Hawkins Brown were the architects leading the design for the scheme.
Carol Lees, Partner and Architect recently held a session with Year 5 and Year 6 pupils at the school. The pupils commented that even on their first day they noticed how quiet the school was, and how much better they’re able to now concentrate when classroom doors are closed. The sixth form spaces have been really heavily used during exams (particularly oral exams) because they are so much quieter now than those in the sixth form centre.
The school also held a drinks reception in the foyer and the acoustics worked well, with speeches delivered without amplification. Same too for the hall where they did a panel discussion and the microphone wasn’t required at all!
An amazing testimonial from the pupils and staff for our work advising on the acoustic design!
