The new senior school building for Crosfields school in Reading winds between existing mature trees to create a new senior courtyard space and learning facility for this independent day school.

The Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) frame enables large open plan classrooms and resource rooms; the design team mobilised the CLT to create a large gallery space at the centre of the plan, with cantilevering ribdecks hung from CLT transfer walls ensuring clear views into the atrium space below.

The sloping CLT roof planes create head height whilst enabling the installation of solar PV array helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the build. Carefully sequenced, the construction of the school continued during the Covid-19 pandemic and was completed by the contractor KLH and Beard Construction on time, despite the challenges that the pandemic presented.