Client: Wendell Park School
Type of works: supplied Metro sheets.
Cembrit Metro sheets have been used on a new extension project at Wendell Park School in London. Colourful and bright, Metro has played a vital role in the construction of two exterior canopies that provide a contemporary look to the existing Victorian building.
Wendell Park School is a state school for boys and girls between the ages of four and eleven. Like a vast number of schools they have recently recognised the opportunity that modern cladding presents to create an innovative and exciting building that can inspire and engage students and staff alike.
The school was originally built over a century ago with its first wing being completed in 1901; a second was completed in the 1950s albeit in a different style to the original. That coupled with a lack of investment and ad-hoc refurbishments over the years left the school in desperate need of well-planned and top quality extension. Designed by architect, de Metz Forbes Knight, the school now has two new contemporary looking canopies for the entrance and play areas.
Greg King from Rainscreen Solutions, the onsite contractor for the project, gave his reasons for choosing Cembrit Metro. “I’ve been in the cladding business for some time now, and throughout my time in the industry. I’ve realised the quality that comes with Cembrit products is on a different level. Metro is a colourful, high impact resistance cladding that will not buckle when struck, making it ideally suited to the rigors of traditional construction and school building projects. Coupled with Cembrit’s highly efficient service Metro was the perfect choice.”
Cembrit Metro is part of Cembrit’s extensively researched URBANNATURE range of fibre cement external decorative cladding boards, which provide a harmonious selection of shades and intensities reflecting natural colours ideal for use in urban environments. The Metro selection has been chosen to offer a palette of colours from which designers can use options which work together, increasing the possibilities for expression. The standard colours are selected to give designers as wide a choice as possible without being restricted by the manufacturing process. The range offers external claddings in through colour, transparent glaze, semi transparent glaze or opaque surface coating. All of these boards withstand the effects of the weather and are resistant to dirt, humidity or fungal invasion so the façade, it will remain uniformly beautiful throughout its life cycle.