Educational: New Build
Winner: Cavell First & Nursery School, Norwich

The Cavell First & Nursery School in Norwich, comprises new single-storey high thermal performance classrooms, a sports/assembly hall, staffroom and ancillary accommodation. It was built in lightweight structural steel, timber and concrete block, replacing a demolished 1930's timber-framed building.

The specifier, NPS Property Consultants, wanted a finish that would offer a similar appearance to that of the original rendered building, but without the problems of cracking that traditional renders often suffer. The buildings were completely clad in 800 sq. metres of Dryvit Outsulation Rail external wall insulation system. The system is mechanically fixed and therefore able to accommodate undulations in the substrate and take-up differential movement between the steel and blockwork elements. The 120mm EPS insulation is protected by glass fibre reinforcing mesh embedded in a polymer modified cementitious basecoat and finished with hardwearing decorative acrylic render. The main background colour was Bright White, with the flat-roofed cloakroom pods colour-coded for different school years in Sea Frost (green), Ocean Blue, and a custom salmon pink colour. The main hall rising to second storey is in Sweet Potato Pie (pale terracotta). Work on the £1.55M project began in summer 2003 and was completed in August 2004 ready for the new school year. The main contractor was J S Hay Ltd; the system designer Dryvit UK Ltd; and the installer Insulclad (Europe) Ltd - the latter two being INCA members.