The Bridge Academy

Like many inner city areas with ageing school buildings, Hackney was keen to take advantage of the UK's academies programme, an opportunity to build an inspiring new school that could help reinvigorate the area in a variety of ways. With an imaginative, space-optimising, horseshoe design from BDP and corporate sponsorship from UBS in place, the challenge was to build on a restricted-access site bordered by high rise housing and a canal. Working to fixed budget and time constraints, Mace delivered the acedemy in time for the beginning of the 2008 school year.

For Mace's experienced construction team, the project included various tactical challenges including delivering the inclined ETFE facade and the academy's central library, which is suspended from an exposed hooped tubular truss over the open plan central common area. Beyond the building, Mace also helped the sponsor to maximise the social impact and benefits of the project. A comprehensive social inclusion programme placed 25 local unemployed people in work on the academy project, enabled work shadowing, and provided work experience to local community groups, schools and youth clubs. The programme also ensured that local residents had a single authoritative point of contact for any issues they wanted to raise during the build.