Fives Courts, Lancing College

Client
Lancing College

Duration
21 weeks

The Brief

• Lancing College is an independent public school in West Sussex, with beautiful historic buildings and a Gothic Revival chapel.
• Lancing College is home to a number of Fives courts. Eton Fives is a sport which originated at Eton College in the 19^th Century, and can best be compared to handball and squash. It is played in doubles on a three-sided court, with players wearing gloves to hit a ball against the walls and score points.
• Our task was to convert an existing space into a café and social area for students and visitors, and to refurbish the two Fives courts on site.
• The café area was also to include a mezzanine floor, and the whole building was to be re-roofed.
• The aim was to bring more visitors to the Fives courts, and to give students a welcoming place to pass their free time.
• Hawes Construction Group won the project in a competitive tender.
• We worked with the architect Miller Bourne and structural engineer McCarey Simmonds on this project.

Our Solution

• The college was fully operational throughout the project, with lessons happening for the duration, and staff and students going about their daily activities.
• To ensure that the works were as unobtrusive as possible, we consulted timetables of lessons and student activity, and restricted any noisy works to times that suited them.
• This included some weekend work to avoid disrupting lesson times.
• The construction site was adjacent to the maths department, so we put up insulated panels to reduce noise transfer and minimise disruption.
• We pre-arranged all deliveries with the college team to make sure the logistics ran smoothly and delivery vehicles had access to the site.
• All of our staff were fully DBS checked prior to starting the project, and our site manager was hand-picked for this specialist job.
• Strategic demolition was also involved. We had to take down an internal wall – to achieve this, we used concrete cutting and diamond drilling, which is one of our specialties.
• We also put new drainage in, and completed everything with a high-end finish befitting the location.
• We reconfigured and landscaped the area outside the café and court, so that it was a nice setting to relax in good weather.
• We installed bifold doors to link the inside space and outside space.

The Result

• We handed over the café just 3 weeks later due to design changes and additional works. The remainder of the external works and the newly refurbished fives courts were completed within the clients timeframe.
• We transformed the courts and café into a bright and friendly space for students and visitors to the college, perfect for students to enjoy using in their free time.
• The space is much improved for students, staff, visitors, and members of the Fives club, and has been brought up to the standard that they deserve.
• The client is very happy with the new space, including the newly roofed and decorated Fives courts in such a vibrant blue colour.