Christ Church Academy, Birmingham

Christ Church Academy is a brand new £19m Secondary School in Yardley Wood, Birmingham, creating 1,500 new school places in the area. The project was the first to be delivered under the Department of Education framework (DfE) for the Birmingham Diocesan Multi-Academy Trust and constructed under the Education & Skills Funding Agency High-Value Contractors Framework. The new school also includes a sports hall, two full-size football pitches and one FA standard 3G pitch. Traditional materials have been used in a contemporary way to create a clean, simple aesthetic, whilst providing robustness and ease of maintenance. To complement the high-end schools design and feel, Willmott Dixon approached Langley Design to manufacture and install a full range of bespoke external furniture. We used timber elements throughout and combined this with powder-coated steel to develop a harmonious external area against the school facade. Our curved benches were chosen to create feature seating areas with matching picnic table sets in order to complement each other. The double-width timber cycle shelters with clad ends offer a high capacity and stylish storage solution in a minimal area and ties in with the cladding of the bin stores.