City of London Academy, The Britannia Project, Shoreditch Park

City of London Academy Shoreditch Park by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios forms a part of The Britannia Project, regenerating a thriving London community with new facilities and amenities including new housing, a new school and community leisure facilities. Built to cater for the anticipated expanding population, the new development forms a harmonious addition to the existing neighbourhood with new, high-quality public spaces.

The new secondary school for 900 local students plus a 200 student sixth form school had complex underground constraints to take into consideration in the design process, a challenge which informed every part of the building, including the choice of flooring and its installation in the school sports hall. Proposed Crossrail tunnels beneath the building meant the sports floor had to be able to cope with a much larger amount of structural movement than what would be considered normal for a building of this kind. Junckers’ technical department worked closely with the architect exploring a number of options to finally help them arrive at a solution which could accommodate an unusually large amount of structural movement and at the same time retain the sprung quality of the floor for sports and other activities.

Junckers Approved Contractor V.A. Hutchison fitted Junckers 22mm solid Ash Champion over New Era battens with 125mm insulation between battens. Line markings for four badminton courts as well as basketball, netball and handball courts ensure the sports hall will serve the school and the wider community as a hub for multiple events and activities.

The floor is area elastic and fully complies with EN 14904 class A4, a high-performance sprung floor which will serve the school and community for decades to come. A 22mm Junckers sports floor can be sanded and refinished up to ten times without losing performance, and with regular sandings in 12-year intervals, a lifespan of 60+ years as set out by the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge can easily be achieved. Funding for schools issued

by the Department for Education is now dependent on fulfilling strict sustainability criteria. Junckers has independently verified certification to show its flooring fulfils these criteria,

In addition to the sports hall, Junckers flooring was specified for the school’s main hall, which is used for drama and other activities. The original specification was for a vinyl floor, but as

a more sustainable solution, Junckers’ 22mm Nordic Oak in the Classic grade was selected. V. A. Hutchison Flooring installed the oak floor on New Era battens with 125mm insulation, including an area of 91 m2 of extra battens for support in the main hall.

Jo Gimenenz, Architect at FCBStudios added:

“We have worked with Junckers for many of our projects, CoLASP being one of the most recent and they always provide an excellent technical service. Particularly so on this project where we had

to overcome a complex structural movement joint detail in our ground floor Main Hall, due to proposed Crossrail tunnels beneath the building. A Junckers flooring system was also installed in our Sports Hall. For this space we opted again for a solid timber flooring in lieu of a vinyl topped raised floor as it was a more sustainable solution.”