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| Sector |
Education |
| Project type |
New build |
| Services provided |
Planning advice Design Product / system manufacture Product / system supply Project management Installation |
Watling Academy is a newly-built secondary school in the heart of the Western Expansion area of Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes Council funded the project to meet the growth arising from the continued expansion of the town.
Graham Construction was appointed on this £40m secondary school that will create 1800 new school places for 11-16 year-olds, and Langley Design was chosen to deliver a huge scope of street furniture and canopy products.
Langley Design’s full manufacturing capabilities were used to provide cycle shelters, canopies, concrete benches, timber-topped concrete benches, bollards, litter bins, recycling bins, planters, picnic tables, timber seats and benches.
Materials included precast concrete, galvanised and powder-coated steel, stainless steel and treated Redwood.
With such a breadth of product, it was important to keep the aesthetics so the choices of colours for the concrete and canopies were discussed at length, whilst ensuring items that needed powder-coating matched the areas they were going into.
The mixture of solid, straight precast concrete benches, alongside the curved units to match the paving line, gave the school a funky seating arrangement whilst also protecting the landscaped areas. Langley also timber-topped a different range of concrete benches alongside the school building which gives the students an additional seating area, whilst offering a comfier seat compared with the concrete.
Perhaps the most striking element of the project was an impressive external canopy which covered a huge 32 x 8m area. Underneath this were more traditional timber and granite picnic table sets which offered external dining for the students under a covered space. This still left half the area open for the school to use as outdoor teaching or additional covered space for the students to socialise.
