Schools are under increasing pressure to make the transition to net zero. This is a challenging and costly exercise for older, listed buildings, but is easily achievable and affordable for new builds thanks to our state-of-the-art tensioned membrane structures.

Many Schools have pledged  to be carbon neutral by 2030, but are unsure how to go about it. We were delighted therefore to be invited to speak to estate managers from some of the UK’s leading independent schools at a recent event to explain how they can start building carbon neutral structures right now to help meet their net zero goals.

The event was held at Millfield School, which has invested in two of our ground-breaking structures – the Millfield Indoor Cricket Centre and the John Graveney Golf Centre – which won Somerset Building Control Partnership’s Educational Building of the Year Award. The cricket centre is widely recognised as the best in the UK.

Not only do they offer world-class facilities including full length cricket lanes, fielding practice areas, a putting green and full-length practice bays, but their outstanding environmental performance is helping Millfield School on its journey to net zero.  

High specification fibreglass insulation in the walls and roof of the buildings ensure better climate control, while absorbing sound and reverberation for great acoustics, which is rare in school sports buildings.

In addition, the roofs of the buildings are the ideal pitch for solar panels. Indeed, by installing our specialist solar panel system, Millfield could generate enough power to run the structures at zero cost.  

Our future proof structures also meet LETI 2030 School Target of 350kg CO2 per m².

The event was a great opportunity for school estate managers to learn more about our carbon neutral buildings and experience them in action. Following the event, we are already in talks with a number of schools about new sports building projects.

Get in touch to see how we can help your school on the path to net zero

01225 618188

[email protected]

Production specialists want customisable, purpose-built studio space and sound stages that help them meet their net zero ambitions.

It’s set to be another great year for UK film and TV production, with the latest official figures from the British Film Institute reporting record-breaking levels of production spend for 2022. The combined spend by film and high-end television production (HETV) reached £6.27 billion last year – that’s the highest ever.

It’s a huge vote of confidence in the sector and is testament to the UK’s role as a major player in this industry. As such, demand for studio space and sound stages remains high.

Quick sound stage solutions

Production professionals were impressed with the speed of build our solution offers. A 22,000sq ft stage can be built in as little as six months, which is hugely beneficial for studios looking to increase capacity.

Our sound stages are delivered with a full sound attenuation system (minimum STC rating of 48) from ceiling to floor, with a 40ft high lighting grid specifically designed to hold several tonnes per major hanging point, allowing virtually unlimited capacity for lighting and set design. Our sound stage also features accessible loading areas, all HVAC and fire safety requirements, and a significant electrical power system.

We also offer full turnkey solutions. A specialist technician is sent out with every structure to oversee the build and work with your project team. The sizes and internal fit out of our sound stages are completely customisable and can be tailored to meet all filming needs.

Cost effective studio space

In addition to significantly faster construction times, our solution dramatically lowers costs – an important consideration for any studio. Constructed using patented technology, our tensioned membrane buildings provide the most advanced studio space available at a fraction of the cost of traditional builds, with a typical 50 per cent saving.

Where multiple studio spaces are needed, more than one specialist technician will work onsite with your project team to allow the structures to be constructed simultaneously to significantly reduce the overall build time.

Sound stages incorporating ancillary spaces

It’s important not to under-estimate the benefit of office and ancillary spaces, said production professionals. In addition to the sound stage space, our structures can incorporate offices, and additional structures can be constructed on site to house departments such as wardrobe and props, make-up and dressing areas, transportation, lighting and grip.

Net zero production

Studios are increasingly looking to embrace sustainable production practices. In addition to offering superior sound insulation, our structures are thermally insulated. This, coupled with our exceptional air tightness, can help you reach your net zero and sustainability goals.

Designed and manufactured offsite, our superstructures are delivered in 40ft shipping containers, which dramatically cuts vehicle traffic during construction.

The buildings comprise a high proportion of recyclable components, while their lightweight aluminium construction significantly reduces the size of the concrete foundations needed and the associated earth removal.

We’re looking forward to supporting the UK film and TV production industry to expand studio space and sound stages to meet production demand so the sector continues to thrive.

With the ongoing rise in construction costs forcing schools to revise or reconsider investment in new sports facilities, high performance tensile structures could keep projects on track.

Necessity is the mother of invention as the saying goes. And with rising energy costs, inflation and increases in the price of construction materials continuing to affect capital projects, schools may find their plans for new sports facilities have now become unaffordable. Instead of scaling back on schemes or putting them on the back burner, now is the ideal time to look to alternative solutions.

Modern tensioned membrane buildings from Paragon Structures can meet all of your sports requirements at a fraction of the cost of a traditional bricks and mortar building, especially given the considerable increases in the cost of cement and concrete this year.

Using patented technology, and developed following years of extensive research and development, tensile membrane structures are a quick, robust and cost-effective alternative to traditionally built sports facilities. Here are some of the reasons why:

• Lower costs – Paragon’s insulated sports facilities can be delivered with up to 40 per cent cheaper capital costs than standard buildings. Their outstanding thermal performance means they have less heating demands than a typical sports facility, resulting in lower operating costs. They also require minimal maintenance for further savings.
• Quick to build – A major advantage of modular buildings is speed and ease of construction compared to traditional builds – it takes just 44 days to build 1,000m2, delivering dramatic cost savings and minimising disruption.
• Reach your net zero targets – more and more schools are committing to cutting their carbon emissions to zero by 2030. With a BREEAM rating of Excellent, Paragon’s buildings benefit from outstanding environmental performance. The structures are tensioned both inside and out to create a virtually airtight building. Indeed, Paragon’s airtightness performance approaches Passivhaus levels – the gold standard of energy efficient design – helping schools to save energy and cut carbon emissions. The structures meet June 2022 building regulations regarding thermal efficiency and U-values. High specification fibreglass insulation in the walls and roof of the building ensure better climate control, while absorbing sound and reverberation for great acoustics – a rarity in school sports buildings. Plus, the roofs of the buildings are the ideal pitch for solar panels and, by installing Paragon’s specialist solar panel system, schools can generate electricity and save more on their energy bills.
• Complete design flexibility – sports facilities from Paragon Structures are bespoke to ensure they meet the sports needs of every school. Meeting Sport England standards, their clear-span interiors, generous roof heights and translucent daylight panels also make them the ideal playing environment for both training and competitions.

Modern, fit for purpose sports facilities are not only critical for school pupils and staff, they can also be hired out to local sports clubs and community groups to generate additional revenue for your school. If you think you can’t afford a high performance sports building, think again and explore the benefits of a modern tensioned membrane building from Paragon Structures

Studios need to quickly expand to keep pace with the booming demand for production space. Quick to build, Paragon Structure’s cost-effective studio and sound stages are the ideal solution.

The UK is enjoying unprecedented growth in film and TV production. According to official statistics from the British Film Institute (BF), there was a record £5.64bn spend on film and high-end TV production in the UK in 2021 – that’s the highest ever reported and £1.27bn more than for the pre-pandemic year 2019.

Additional research this year, commissioned by ScreenSkills – the training body which manages the Film Skills Fund – and supported by the BFI, says that this growth is likely to continue at an annual average rate of 7.3 per cent between 2022 and 2025, with spending predicted to reach between £7.07bn and £7.66bn by 2025.

This is great news for the industry as well as the UK economy, but means that studios must quickly expand to accommodate this once-in-a-generation growth. In fact, property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton estimates that 2.3 million sq ft of new sound stage space will be required by 2033 to keep pace with production demand.

Paragon Structures are the ideal solution partner to facilitate this growth. Our sustainable Sprung structures provide the most cost-effective studio and sound stages in the world thanks to their unique qualities. Constructed using patented technology, our tensioned membrane buildings can be built in as little as six months, providing the most advanced studio space available at a fraction of the cost of traditional builds, with a typical 50 per cent saving.

Designed to meet your specification and tailored to the set you want to create, Paragon’s flexible film studios and sound stages can accommodate productions of any scale with unlimited bespoke lighting and set capacity.

Our permanent buildings benefit from a 50-year warranty on the frame and 25-year warranty on the membrane, and can be relocated, reconfigured and repurposed to suit production needs.

They also deliver a superior internal environment thanks to our specifically designed, 50mm thick sound insulation, which absorbs sound reflection reverberant noise. Our Insul-quilt insulation allows you to mitigate sound and echo problems in large spaces, resulting in a noise reduction coefficient of 0.90.

Paragon’s solutions can help studios to reduce their environmental impact too. Designed and manufactured offsite, our superstructures are delivered in 40ft shipping containers, which dramatically cuts vehicle traffic during construction.

The buildings comprise a high proportion of recyclable components, while their lightweight aluminium construction significantly reduces the size of the concrete foundations needed and the associated earth removal.

Our structures also have excellent thermal properties with u-values and energy loss well below similar building types, reducing both capital and operating costs for studios. This is due to our superior insulation, which exceeds current building regulations, and the outstanding air tightness of the structures, which boast air permeability of less than 10 per cent of the building regulations standard. All of which helps our structures to achieve a BREEAM rating of Excellent.

So, whether you need a single studio or a full soundstage campus, our unique structures can meet your needs to ensure you can capitalise on the boom in UK TV and film production.

In January 2021, Millfield School turned the heating off in its new cricket centre. It hasn’t been used since thanks to the outstanding energy efficiency of the Paragon Structures building.

With spiralling energy bills, it’s essential that schools take steps to reduce their energy consumption. And addressing old, inefficient sports facilities is a good place to start. This is what Millfield School did, replacing its outdated air dome with a premium insulated tensioned membrane building from Paragon Structures.

For the price of one traditional sports building, Millfield was able to invest in two high performance structures for its golf and cricket programmes, with airtightness performance approaching Passivhaus levels – the gold standard of energy efficient design.

Superior thermal performance

The indoor cricket centre not only provides state of the art facilities – it’s one of only a handful of centres in the UK with a 22m run up – it also ensures the optimum conditions for year-round practice due to outstanding thermal performance and is a significant improvement over the former facilities.

“Our old cricket facility was an air pressured inflatable dome, which would get blown over and ripped by the wind. It was a small, restrictive space and the fluctuations in temperature were extreme, ranging from -10^oC in the winter up to 45^oC in the summer,” explains Mark Garaway, director of cricket at Millfield School.

“The guarantees on Paragon’s structures and the environments where they’re located across the world gave me the confidence that they could withstand the weather. What surprised us most was the insulation of the building and how well it regulates temperature,” says Garaway.

Suited to almost any climate ( -50°C to +50°C), Paragon’s sport structures have superior climate control thanks to the high specification fibreglass insulation in the walls and roof.

In fact, the insulation is so good that the school turned the heating off in January 2021 and hasn’t needed to switch it back on since.

Future-proof sports facilities

The quality of the cricket centre is such that in addition to catering for students, Millfield rents the facilities to other clubs, including Somerset County Cricket Club for winter training. The England team also based themselves here to prepare for their test match against South Africa, while the New Zealand’s women’s squad hosted a two-week training camp at Millfield ahead of the Commonwealth Games this summer.

“This is a far more attractive option than a traditional sports building; we got a bigger building for less cost, which has allowed us to work continuously with players in all three school terms and future-proof our golf facilities to keep pace with technology and increasing demand.”

With a previous best medal tally of 174 at Glasgow 2014, Birmingham 2022 is England’s most successful Commonwealth Games to date.

Their impressive medal haul was bolstered by outstanding performances in the pool, with England’s swimmers winning a total of 32 medals – eight gold, 16 silver and eight bronze. Swimmer Tom Dean bagged the most medals for England with six silvers and one gold.

Adan Peaty, who secured his fourth Commonwealth gold at the games, used the event as a platform to condemn the closure of pools and leisure centres across the UK.

Speaking to The Mirror, he said: “We really need the people in power to stop closing pools and facilities. We should hold the government and councils accountable to make sure we invest in facilities across the country.

“What is the point of investing £24 million every four years in British Swimming if we can’t invest in the next generation who need those pools to be open?”

BBC Freedom of Information requests to UK councils found that 65 pools had closed, either temporarily or permanently, in the three years to March 2022. This means fewer places for children to learn to swim and the next generation of athletes to hone their skills.

But we also know that too many of the UK’s leisure centres are old, in a poor state of repair and eye-wateringly expensive to run. They are simply no longer fit for purpose and must be replaced with modern, efficient and sustainable facilities, located in the right areas and accessible to all.

Paragon Structure’s advanced tensioned membrane buildings provide precisely the sort of high performance swimming facilities the UK is crying out for. Engineered for strength, Paragon’s long-lasting bespoke structures create light and airy pool spaces with high ceilings and abundance natural daylight. They are highly energy-efficient and more cost-effective to both build and operate than traditional pool halls. Highly customisablew, they are easy to reconfigure so operators can adapt their pool buildings to meet future needs.

It’s time to replace the UK’s old, energy-hungry swimming pools with the next generation of aquatic venues so we can ensure local communities have access to these vital facilities for their health and wellbeing and we can look forward to even more success from our future athletes.

02/08/2022

“I think we need an honest conversation about our facilities,” says Olympic medallist and former Commonwealth Champion swimmer, Sharron Davies. “Because we have a real problem on our hands. We’ve already lost 250 pools and leisure centres since the pandemic and, according to Sport England, another 1,000 could close by the end of the decade if we continue on this path. Many of our leisure centres are outdated and in a shocking state of disrepair.”

Davies, one of the UK’s best-known and most popular sportswomen, knows what she’s talking about – not least because a considerable part of her life has been spent in a pool.

She burst onto the swimming scene as a 13-year-old Olympian in 1976 and instantly became a household name. Aged just 14, she won two European Bronze medals, followed by a silver medal at the Moscow Olympics in 1980. Her incredible international career spanned three decades and included numerous major titles and medals, as well as 200 British and Commonwealth records.

Since retiring in 1994, after two decades at the top level of her sport, she become a regular on TV and in the press – most notably as a key member of BBC’s television coverage of major events. She has, either as an athlete or broadcaster, covered every single Olympic Games since 1976.

Now, she is on a mission to tackle what she calls a serious issue – the state of the UK’s sports and leisure centre infrastructure. She is as passionate about the future of grassroots swimming as she was about making it to the podium during her elite career.

“Some of the UK’s leisure stock is in crisis,” Davies says. “There were a lot of leisure facility projects in the 1970s and many of those venues were designed simply as boxes with activities crammed inside them – there wasn’t a lot of imagination when it came to leisure centre architecture back then.

“What’s now happening is that many of those centres are now at the end of their life. During the pandemic, many local authorities were struggling to run these ageing facilities, as they were outdated, weren’t environmentally friendly and, as a result, hugely expensive to run. The added financial pressures experienced at local level during COVID-19 – especially as the facilities weren’t generating any income – have hit the sector hard. To make things worse, sadly, we’re one of the few countries in Europe which don’t ringfence funding for leisure and physical activity facilities or services as a public service.

“As a result, we’ve lost 250 facilities and that is utterly ridiculous. Because let’s face it, we weren’t particularly well-served in the first place, when it comes to having enough pools and leisure centres.”

FLEXIBLE DESIGNS

For Davies, the first step to improving the UK’s leisure facility stock is to successfully make the case that sport and physical activity matter. She wants the sector to be seen as an essential service, which saves the NHS millions by acting as a preventative health service.

“As a nation, our healthcare costs are spiralling thanks to rising obesity levels and other lifestyle diseases,” she says. “Prevention is not only easier, but also a lot cheaper than the cure – and sports and physical activity play a huge role in that. We now need local and central government to finally understand that.

“It’s not merely physical fitness that leisure centres and swimming pools could help improve, either. I think the positive effects that physical activity has on mental health remain hugely underappreciated.

“So what we have to do is to make the government understand that we need to have affordable, clean, welcoming and inclusive facilities that people will want to use – and stay fitter and healthier. That really is one of my big quests in life.”

To put this quest – which extends beyond just improving pools – into action, Davies has partnered with Paragon Structures, a specialist in tensile buildings. As an ambassador and shareholder in the company, Davies now promotes the virtues of tensioned membrane structures, which she says are affordable, accessible and – importantly – flexible and sustainable, making them cheaper to operate.

“It’s time to think differently about how we build sport and physical activity spaces,” Davies says. “For one, facilities should be multi-use, because we really need to think about how we get the best for our money from the things we’re building. Not all children like traditional sports, but by helping them find an activity they enjoy we can develop good habits that will last a lifetime to benefit their mental and physical health.

“Also great facilities don’t have to take two years to construct and they don’t need to be so expensive. That’s where using membrane structures comes in – we can significantly reduce the total build programme and they are up to 40 per cents cheaper too.

“That’s important, because one of the biggest issues at the moment is that local authorities are scared witless about how they’re going to be able to afford to run some of these old facilities. This is why I’m excited about this partnership – we can offer a potential solution, rather than just bemoan the fact that we have a problem.”

When it comes to Davies’ first love, swimming, it’s not just the facilities that are causing her – and the sector – concerns. According to Swim England, a nationwide shortage of 8,000 swimming teachers is preventing more than half a million youngsters from learning a vital life skill.

The national governing body has put the lack of swimming teachers down to the pandemic lockdowns when pools were closed and staff went in search of alternative employment – or simply retired. An inability to deliver practical assessment centres to help train the normal intake of teachers since the first lockdown in March 2020 has also exacerbated the issue.

“I think it’s no secret that no one goes into swimming teaching to become a millionaire, they do it because they see it as a vocation,” Davies said. “Swimming teachers aren’t the highest paid, but they love their jobs and get great satisfaction from it. The pandemic put teachers under serious financial pressure and many had to look elsewhere for a living.”

The lack of teachers has contributed to a statistic that Davies describes as “shocking” – nearly half of pupils now leave primary school unable to swim.

“Swimming is a life skill, which you can do from the cradle to grave,” Davies says. “And it’s terribly important to get kids swimming. So now it’s all about trying to encourage the teachers to come back again – and recruit some new blood.

“Even that process ultimately comes back to facilities. We need the right facilities to help attract the teachers. If all we have are old, cold, smelly pools with poor facilities that aren’t properly maintained then no one wants to come and work in that sort of environment – no matter how much they love the job.”

A new guide has launched to help unlock the benefit of school sports facilities over the summer and outside of school hours..

Targeting schools, local authorities, activity delivery partners and funding organisations, the Open Doors Blueprint has been created by ukactive and Nike to allow all children to access sport and physical activity facilities during the holidays providing essential support for their physical, mental and social wellbeing.

Launched ahead of the summer break, the new guidance follows the success of ukactive and Nike’s Open Doors programme in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, which uses school sports facilities as activity hubs over the holidays.

Why is so important? Research by ukactive shows that children and young people suffer a loss in fitness levels of up to 80 per cent over the summer holidays, with the fitness of those from low-income families falling 18 times faster than their more affluent peers. This mirrors “summer learning loss”, with a report by the Education Policy Institute showing that schoolchildren who were eligible for free school meals for 80 per cent of their time at school were, on average, 24 months behind their classmates – it is estimated that 66 per cent of the achievement gap can be explained by summer learning loss.  Experts believe these issues are linked to the continued decline in youth spaces, as over 600 youth centres have closed, over 3,500 youth workers lost their jobs and 140,000 places for young people disappeared.

Independent schools already with state schools and partners to share their resources and provide positive experiences for local children. Opening up their sports facilities can re-shape school holiday experiences for those children and young people that really need it. Figures from the Independent Schools Council’s (ISC) latest annual report show that private schools have the following sports facilities:

• Sports fields – 66 per cent
• Tennis courts – 58 per cent
• Astroturf – 53 per cent
• Swimming pools – 42 per cent
• Sports centres – 42 per cent
• Dance studios – 36 per cent
• Fitness centres – 35 per cent

High quality sports and physical activity facilities like the award-winning golf and cricket [vk1] structures we built for Millfield School benefit children’s mental, physical and emotional health.

By opening their gates up to children from the wider community during the summer break, schools can help more young people stay active and engaged during the holidays so they too can benefit from some of the fantastic sports facilities on offer in the education sector.

Contact us to see how we can revitalise your sports facilities

 [vk1]Link to case study on website

Accidental drownings in the UK have risen for the second year in a row, according to the latest figures from the National Water Safety Forum.

The Forum’s Water Incident Database reports a rise of 23 accidental drownings in the UK’s inland and coastal waters in 2021 compared to the previous year. This figure forms part of the 616 total water-related deaths recorded in the UK in 2021.

The Water Incident Database research shows that most accidental drownings occur when people are running or walking next to the water. Put all this together and you have a compelling argument for ensuring both children and adults learn how to swim and get themselves out of trouble if they fall into water.

But how can we deliver these essential life skills when we have a shortage of swimming teachers? According to Swim England, there is a national shortage of 8,000 swimming teachers (Swim England 2021). A workforce insight report issued in December 2021 by CIMSPA (Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity) – the professional development body for the UK’s sport and physical activity sector – also showed that operators across the UK were experiencing staff shortages, the largest of which were among swimming teachers. 

People have left the profession for a number of reasons, including poor rates of pay – two members of my own family did so for the same reason. Addressing pay will go a long way to attracting and retaining these professionals at a time when their skills are needed more than ever.

But there are other factors at play here too. One of which is the condition of our workplaces. So many of our leisure centres are outdated and in a shocking state of disrepair. Staff who work in these centres are constantly having to fence off complaints about faulty equipment, problems with dodgy showers and smelly changing rooms, which is not only extremely frustrating but can lead to low morale. Is it any surprise that staff get fed up and move on?

According to the Local Government Association, local authorities are the biggest providers of swimming pools in the country; 85 per cent of young people learn essential swimming and water safety skills in a public swimming pool.

Thanks to the pandemic, Swim England estimates that 1.88 million children have missed out on school swimming lessons. Of this, an estimated 532,000 of children come from ethnically diverse communities and 411,000 live in the most deprived areas in England.

We cannot afford to lose our swimming teachers. We have to address pay and invest in high quality, cost effective and environmentally friendly facilities – like the Swim Centre concept we at Paragon Structures designed with Cowan Architects for Swim England – to ensure everyone has the opportunity to learn this critical life skill and stay safe in and around water.

New building regulations came into force in England in June, with requirements for buildings to be more energy efficient. Our sports buildings are designed to exceed the new standards, making it easier to cut emissions and meet net zero targets.  

Heating and powering buildings currently makes up 40 per cent of the UK’s total energy use. The new building regulations came into force in England on 15^th June, which are designed to cut energy usage by making buildings more energy efficient.

If you’re planning a new sports building, these changes will impact you and will result in higher build costs. But with a BREEAM rating of Excellent, our high performance structures are already designed to exceed the new building regulations. And here’s how:

Superior insulation

The membrane design means the entire 300mm thickness of the building’s walls and roof is filled with high specification fibreglass insulation.  The insulation not only provides better climate control, it also absorbs sound and reverberation for great acoustics in your sports hall.

Airtight structures

In traditional buildings, air escapes in joins or cracks in the walls and roof. Steel buildings expand and contract as the temperature changes, which can also cause air loss and impact energy efficiency. By contrast, our premium structures are tensioned both inside and out.  This creates a natural seal making the structure virtually airtight. In fact, our airtightness performance approaches Passivhaus levels – the gold standard of energy efficient design – helping you to save energy and cut carbon emissions.

Thermal performance

As large, open spaces with high ceilings, brick and steel sports halls can be extremely cold in the winter. This is because the roof and walls cool to the outside temperature overnight and a lot of energy is then required to heat the brick and steel back up the next day. Schools find themselves in a continual cycle of losing heat overnight, pumping in energy to warm up the building up during the day, then losing heat again overnight. Our building’s insulated membrane design avoids this problem as it takes minimal energy to reach optimum temperature. In fact, this combined with our insulation and airtightness performance, means clients like Millfield School find they rarely have to heat their sports buildings at all.

Our roofs are also the perfect pitch for solar panels and by installing our specialist solar panel system, you can generate electricity and save more on your energy bills.

We all have to act to fight climate change. Improving the energy efficiency of your sports building will help slash carbon emissions and help deliver net zero contributing to a cleaner and greener future.