Radley College School of Music, Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Project Overview
At Radley College, music is an important part of school life, with Silk Hall long established as the College’s main performance space. The £9 million School of Music project brought together refurbishment and extension works to build on that foundation, creating a more joined-up setting for performance, teaching and practice.
At the heart of the scheme is the new 350-seat Silk Hall concert venue, with upgraded rehearsal, teaching and music technology spaces helping turn the wider Music School into a more complete and contemporary home for music.
For the roofing package, the project combined refurbishment and new-build elements across approximately 850m² of roof area, including the replacement of the existing standing seam roof over Silk Hall and the installation of a new saw tooth roof section.
Challenges
The roofing works involved a demanding mix of geometry, detailing and sequencing. Silk Hall is a trapezoidal, shallow-pitched structure with roof faces set at different angles; the tapered insulation had to be cut to suit each face while maintaining the intended falls and drainage strategy.
Appearance also mattered on the refurbishment element, with the replacement roof needing to reflect the visual character of the original standing seam finish. At the same time, the new saw tooth section introduced tighter working areas and detailing around rooflights, while the wider programme depended on the building becoming watertight so internal works could continue.
Solution
IKO Armourplan PSG in Slate Grey with a standing seam finish was selected to bring together the visual requirements of the refurbishment with the performance needed across the wider music school. Used with IKO enertherm insulation and an IKO torch-on vapour control layer, the system provided an integrated roof build-up backed by an IKO Single Point Guarantee.
On site, the roof was handed over in five working sections aligned with the tapered insulation layout, allowing Robseal Roofing Solutions to maintain drainage as works progressed by installing the vapour control layer with temporary outlets.
On Silk Hall, trial cuts on spare insulation helped the team shape boards accurately to the building’s varying roof faces before final installation, while the standing seam finish helped recreate the original character of the roof.
On the new saw tooth section, careful detailing around rooflights and tighter junctions helped maintain the clean finish the scheme required. Ongoing coordination between Radley College, Robseal Roofing Solutions and IKO kept access, sequencing and workmanship aligned throughout.
Project name and location:
Radley College School of Music, Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Main IKO system:
IKO Armourplan PSG single ply roofing and waterproofing system
Area:
850m2
Project sector: