City of London Academy

City of London Academy in Southwark, London, appointed Pinnacle Furniture to provide FF&E consultancy, interior design and fitted and loose furniture services for their new build Sixth Form Centre. They needed a lively ‘grown up’ environment that maintained the values and identity of the school, but embraced the individuality of the students.

Project value	£250,000
Number of floors	3
Location	Southwark
Sixth Form Centre	1

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The Brief

The new Sixth Form Centre, spanning over 3 floors, housed of a variety of areas including classrooms, breakout areas, a library, a café, the main reception and several staff offices. The client wanted to involve the students in the design process and hosted workshops with them to gather ideas. It was important for them to have their say into how the Centre would look and what they needed from the space. An interesting element to bear in mind was that City of London Academy is one of only 16 schools in the UK to have an AASE Basketball Programme, so we had to be mindful that many of the students would be over 6 foot tall.

To help the client visualise the design scheme, we built the space in virtual reality. Using the VR goggles, they could see the different furniture and fittings. In addition, Pinnacle invited some of the students and teachers to visit a few showrooms to see the furniture we could offer.

What we did

We provided grey, blue and purple Postura chairs in each classroom which the client favoured due to their price point, wide colour range and robustness. In several classrooms we installed our TeacherWalls, which are a fantastic way to provide functional storage for the teachers and students, as well as having ability to house Smart Boards.

In the breakout areas which were dotted around the Centre, Pinnacle used banquette seating in lime green, turquoise and blue to add a splash of colour. To aid self-directed learning, we provided acoustic booths in purple and yellow. The booths would also be an ideal place to conduct any collaborative work between the students. Wood and concrete effect flooring was fitted throughout the communal areas. With many varying opinions from everyone involved, our design team had to truly focus on the main points and harmonise the design for all parties. We feel the design team did an amazing job catering for the students and teachers. The Sixth Form Centre is now a superb learning environment where the students can thrive.

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