OUR LATEST CASE STUDY FOR DOWNLOAD - THE SILVERSTONE WING
« Elmhurst Ballet School, Edgbaston, Birmingham »
Friday, March 5, 2010 at 3:00AM CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW/DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY IN PDF FORMAT
A prestigious addition to Birmingham’s landmark buildings has been finished with a roof which demonstrates the versatility of Ash & Lacy’s Ashzip standing seam roof system.
The £17 million Elmhurst Ballet School has relocated to its Midlands home from Camberley in Surrey to act as a feeder school for the Birmingham Royal Ballet which itself moved to the city in 1990. At its new five acre Greenfield site in Edgbaston, Elmhurst – the UK’s oldest dance school - features a purpose-built complex, complete with new academic facilities, a 240 seat studio theatre, seven large dance studios, an exercise centre, a theatre workshop and on-site boarding accommodation for up to 120 pupils.
Some 5,000 square metres of Ash & Lacy’s Ashzip roofing provides a fitting finish for a significant addition to Birmingham’s architectural landscape. The Alaska grey finish of the 0.9mm aluminium standing seam panels provides a striking contrast to the building’s traditional brickwork. On two of the complex’s blocks, straight Ashzip panels were installed but the use of different combinations of straight and tapered sheets, the latter in varying widths, on the North and South wings, demonstrates the versatility of Ashzip in creating specific shapes.
A ‘crescent’ shaped roof provides a dramatic feature for the building’s entrance, complete with overhangs to offer shelter to side stairwells, while a different configuration of straight and tapered sheets was also used to create a ‘dagger’ shaped roof structure. As the school’s prospectus proclaims – “…the building is a statement in itself and ‘movement’ has inspired and shaped the design with school life moving, vertically and horizontally, around a central focus – the dance theatre’.
The Ashzip system and the Ashgrid spacer support system which forms an integral part of the Ashzip standing seam roofing package, was a central feature in creating that feeling of movement, providing the flexibility to achieve the desired aesthetics and high performance required.