{"id":2140,"date":"2013-08-20T06:30:19","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T13:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/compositesandarchitecture.com\/?p=2140"},"modified":"2013-08-02T18:05:24","modified_gmt":"2013-08-03T01:05:24","slug":"the-little-white-school-pod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kreysler.zaab.org\/?p=2140","title":{"rendered":"The Little White School-Pod"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ingenium Classroom (perhaps, a descendent of the Futuro House recently featured here) is a stand alone FRP building designed for the UK’s Classrooms of the Future project in the mid 2000’s.\u00a0 These prototype classrooms (2 were built) are FRP-balsa wood composite monocoque structures, designed by architects Future Systems and structural engineer David Kendall (Optima Projects).\u00a0 The shape is an oblate spheroid with an elliptical footprint.\u00a0 The interior is a rectangular classroom with semi-circle added to one end.\u00a0 Although it is less-than-obvious in the available pictures, there are skylight\/vents built into the roof.\u00a0 It is also said to be an energy-efficient building.<\/p>\n

The structure was designed with vertical and horizontal symmetries to minimize the number of molds and keep costs down, and intended to be site-assembled.\u00a0 The cost of a prototype classroom was 500,000 pounds, but Future Systems stated that mass production would reduce this figure considerably.<\/p>\n

The two prototypes are located at Grey Court Secondary School and Meadlands Primary School, both in Ham, west London.\u00a0 The third classroom was planned at Strathmore Special School in the same district, but reportedly the contractor went out of business before it was built.<\/p>\n

Images sourced as noted.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t