Category: Education

Construction works recently started on a new forest school in Coalville, Leicestershire, for Harworth Group plc, a leading regenerator of land and property for sustainable development and investment, with support from North West Leicestershire District Council and Leicestershire County Council.

Designed by award-winning firm Lungfish Architects, the two-form entry school is scheduled to open in 2024, and is being constructed using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) rather than traditional methods.

Our teams paid the manufacturer, Innovaré Offsite, a visit to see how they will work. i-FAST SIPS panels have excellent insulation properties, reducing energy consumption and costs associated with heating and cooling.

i-FAST is a patented closed-panel framed wall system manufactured offsite with intrinsic fire, acoustic, structural, and thermal performance.

Advantages of this system:

• The i-FAST panels are faced with A1 Non-combustible board and factory filled with A1 rated stone wool. The staggered stud arrangement reduces thermal bridging and acoustic transmission, while allowing protection of the stud in a fire scenario. This allows a unique proposal of a standalone panel system that exceeds 60 minutes’ fire resistance without reliance on additional lining boards.
• The panels can be used to form the building structure or as infill. All components are recyclable, CE Marked or BBA Certified. The i-FAST system allows architects, specifiers and inspectors to be confident that the building will achieve a minimum level of performance and is fully supported by Innovaré’s in-house design, manufacturing and installation teams offering complete control over the project.
• This construction method will accelerate the Forest School’s delivery and deliver ambitious building performance outcomes for the school, such as giving thermal values and airtightness significantly below DfE targets, helping to reduce energy demand and lower operational carbon.