Schools, sixth forms, faculty buildings and university science labs. Designing around how the building will actually be used, the carbon targets it has to hit, and the people inside it.
A primary school doesn't engineer like a research laboratory. A listed campus building doesn't engineer like a new accommodation block. We work across the full range of education estates, and the design approach is calibrated each time.
New build and refurbishment, often summer-window construction with tight access constraints.
Mixed teaching environments, sports facilities and accommodation as part of a single estate.
Faculty buildings, lecture theatres and seminar spaces, designed for occupancy that flexes across the academic year.
Campus buildings where external plant is restricted and services have to work within the fabric.
Residential blocks designed against fire safety, ventilation and energy targets for high-density occupancy.
Education buildings aren't used like offices, and they aren't built like commercial space. The engineering decisions that work in one don't translate to the other. These are the considerations that shape every education project we take on.
Schools and universities aren't used the same way through the year. We design heating, ventilation and controls around term-time and holiday operation, not the manufacturer's worst-case scenario. Running costs match the actual usage profile, not a notional one.
Public-sector procurement comes with carbon targets that aren't going to soften. We design with the trajectory in mind, moving away from gas where the budget allows and future-proofing the installation where it doesn't, with embodied-carbon limits and EPC ratings agreed at concept rather than chased at handover.
Education buildings have complex egress and concentrated occupancy in lecture theatres and assembly spaces. Fire detection, alarm and smoke control are designed against actual use patterns, not a generic template.
Teaching labs and research spaces need fume extract, controlled environments and high safety standards. We coordinate the engineering with bench layouts from concept onwards, so the lab works the way the academics need it to.
Robust simplicity is the starting point. Education buildings are owned for fifty years or more, often by estates teams running tight maintenance budgets. The right answer is rarely the most sophisticated one. It's the system that works in week one, still works in year fifteen, and doesn't need a specialist on speed-dial to fix.
In practice that means heat pump strategy worked out early against the heat network and existing plant constraints, EPC rating agreed at concept rather than chased through coordination, lab ventilation coordinated with bench layouts before the architect sets the structural grid, and summer construction windows built into the programme from Stage 2 so commissioning doesn't end up squeezed against term restart.
From the first feasibility conversation through to commissioning, the directors stay close to the project. We work alongside architects we know, with main contractors we've delivered with before, including CPS Building Services and Munro Building Services.
We are happy to look at briefs early, before the engineering scope is fixed. The sooner we are involved, the more value the design tends to add.
