Objective
In order to accommodate a growing student population, Ryde School with Upper Chine decided to commission a new state of the art boarding house, to be located on its main campus in Ryde, Isle of Wight. The new building occupies 1800m² of accommodation space over three floors and can house up to 68 students, the majority of which are expected to be sixth-formers.
Solution
The new boarding house has been named ‘Centenary House’ and has been made accessible to students, staff and parents via a new driveway along the school’s perimeter. It offers light and airy study rooms overlooking the sea and houses a large family kitchen, various social and study spaces and a large common room with direct access to a garden area. The study rooms are split between single and twin rooms, most with en-suite facilities.
Throughout the tender process our pre-construction team maintained close communication with both the school’s Bursar and architectural team, enabling our delivery team to hit the ground running post contract award and ensure the school’s vision was being realised. Following project commencement, we carried out monthly project review meetings with the school and also provided them with formal reports detailing our progress.
The highly anticipated project commenced in November 2019 and ran through to Spring 2021; during this time our team had to contend with an extended period of inclement weather at the outset of the project along with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these challenges, the project was handed over in time for boarders to move into their new rooms on the last weekend of the 2021 summer half-term.