Oaklands College, St Albans

Sited in greenbelt land, the Oaklands College Masterplan comprises the redevelopment of a 56,835m2 site area comprising of existing and new build facilities. The redevelopment design by DLA Architects focused on minimising the impact to the localised greenbelt during the design process, sensitively improved the visual impact of the site and increased the green landscaping.

Cahill Design Consultants (CDC) was commissioned by Fusion PM to provide Fire Engineering and Acoustic Design services to a wide range of projects across the site. This included acoustic design advice and recommendations relating to the requirements of Approved Document E of the Building Regulations and BREEAM and how the regulations may be incorporated into the proposed development. A review and recommendations for the control of building services plant was also undertaken.

CDC was requested to provide site wide technical fire safety advice and produce a fire safety strategy reports to demonstrate that the proposed building designs will meet the fire safety requirements for Building Regulations and gain approval for the design from building control and fire authorities.

The scheme will provide significant improvements to existing educational facilities, simultaneous improving the economic benefits to the city of St Albans increasing the level of expenditure to the area.

Working across the whole site has enabled CDC to design the buildings in context of the wider site and aspirations of the College. The consistency of the design teams and their approach drove efficiencies in the design and construction process of all the buildings.

The Masterplan is spread across years in total to minimise the impact on student and stuff currently working there.

We are really looking forward to seeing the end result, with completion set to be in 2023.