Bam is replacing two ageing schools with one impressive 1,800-pupil institution featuring a spacious ‘street’-based design that requires steel frame and concrete slabs to meet its long-span demands.
Project: Levenmouth Academy
Client: Fife Council
Main contractor: Bam Construction
Architect: AHR
Civil and structural engineer: Aecom
Contract type: Design and build
Project value: £42.5m
Start date: February 2014
Completion date: July 2016
On the Firth of Forth coast near the mouth of the River Leven, an ultra-modern £42.5m secondary school is arising on the playing fields of Buckhaven High School.
The new Levenmouth Academy, situated halfway between Dunfermline and St Andrews, will see the replacement of the existing Buckhaven School and nearby Kirkland High School.
However, with its spacious ‘street’-based layout, huge spans and column-free levels, the new school is as far from a like-for-like replacement as can be imagined.
Work got under way on the site in February last year, with Bam Construction the main contractor and hub East Central Scotland the delivery partner for client Fife Council.
Hub East Central Scotland is a joint partnership between public and private sector organisations.
The new facility was designed by architect AHR in collaboration with both existing schools and with structural engineer Aecom.
Levenmouth Academy is now structurally complete and is currently being clad and fitted out.
It will accommodate 1,800 pupils when the doors are open in August next year, in time for the 2016/17 academic year.
Typically three storeys in height, the new school building’s design is based on the principle of a main corridor ‘street’ running the full length of the building with teaching wings sprouting either side.
At ground floor, the road-facing main entrance and administration block is at one end of the street, with the gymnasium and sports hall block at the other.
Classrooms and workshops occupy the south side of the street at ground floor, while a dining hall, assembly hall and drama studio make up the north side. Upper levels are occupied by classrooms and laboratories.
At first floor, a double-height library is situated at a corner of the building nearest the main entrance.
The design and construction method of Levenmouth Academy builds on Bam’s experience of building two other schools in Auchmuty and Dunfermline, both also in Fife.