Designed by Keval Patel, Architect at Capita Architecture Cardiff, and built by Skanska, with Crouch Perry and Wilkes as the M&E Contractor, the new building reflects the Academy’s specialism in visual and performing arts and confirms its role in the supporting the local community. A new three storey building comprising of a central spine, two wings of classrooms, a central heart space and a specialist theatre hall and supporting areas, the building is both a school and a key performing and visual arts facility for the whole city.

Whilst creating a flexible building structure is one thing, making this a functional reality is another, as building services also needed to meet the design requirements. For this reason the Oasis Academy Bristol is the very first school building in the UK to be fitted with the revolutionary integrated lighting, heating and acoustics services ceiling raft – the Multiservice Foil. A joint venture between Whitecroft Lighting and Zehnder the Multiservice Foil optimises classroom services and fits them in to one simple and comprehensive unit.

Offering complete flexibility in space management the Multiservice Foil integrated the core services of lighting, heating, acoustics, sprinklers, data and power cabling into a one fit solution, thus enabling the unrestricted movement of loose and fixed furniture around the class bases and freeing up internal walls so that they can be removed and relocated within the flexible learning clusters as required.

As well as delivering the necessary flexibility the Multiservice Foil also ensures energy efficient and cost effective service provision from initial construction to the through-life cost of the school building. Maximising the use of daylight the Foil‘s high optical efficiency combined with the use of long T5 lamps and additional lighting controls help reduce energy consumption and minimise carbon emissions. The use of radiant heating also offers up to 40% energy savings on traditional methods.