MARKET SECTORS - EDUCATION

Client - Royal Veterinary College

Architect - Architecture plb

Project Management - Gardiner and Theobald

Duration - 33 weeks

Value - £1.6 million

FAIRCLOTH is converting an unused courtyard into a social learning café, applying a similar technique to that used to build the Eden Project.The company has employed the method while working on the space at the Royal Veterinary College in Camden.

The café has a unique steel roof with seven Teflon inflatable pillows inserted onto the frame. This technique was also used when building Heathrow's Terminal 3.

"An ETFE canopy is ultra lightweight, a great insulator, has great sustainability and floods the area below with light, which meant it was the perfect technique for this project," said Ian Chapman, of Architecture plb.

Work at the college was always going to be challenging as it is a 1920s building, which meant the foundations and drainage had to be renewed first.

A tower crane was the only access to the site so everything had to be picked up and dropped in.

The structure built by Faircloth will include a new café and a raised single-storey reading room in the shape of a pod, with the lower level of the courtyard landscaped into generous terraces of flexible zones for café seating and social learning.

Openings will be created in place of various existing courtyard windows to provide links into existing accommodation.

A toilet block will be refurbished with its roof being made into a break out terrace with staircase access to the pod. An ETFE roof canopy will enclose the courtyard at high level.

Work started in August and is expected to be completed this month.

"We have faced difficulties with building in an enclosed space because the existing building has remained occupied so we have had to be aware of noise and disruption," added Ian.

"But we believe we will successfully achieve the concept, which was trying to bring the outdoors, indoors."