The new £20m Monkseaton High School in North Tyneside is benefiting from bespoke Aluminium panels from Panel Systems.

The panels were specified with metallic silver Syntha pulvin powder coated aluminium faces to meet the specifiers’ high aesthetic requirements.

The powder coated finish on the panels will provide a tough surface which will retain its visual appeal and weather resistant properties for many years to come.

“We are delighted to have been involved in the supply of panels that have played a fundamental part in creating an innovative and visually engaging building,” said Danny Phelan, Sales Manager of Panel Systems. “It just goes to show how versatile composite panels are in helping designers create both striking and thermally efficient buildings.”

Panels Systems supplied the panels with a high performance Polyisocyanurate insulation as the core material to meet the demanding technical and thermal criteria set by the specifier. The Polyisocyanurate was also needed to ensure the panels achieved the high levels of thermal efficiency as required on BREEAM-rated projects.

The distinctive oval shape of the building originated from a government project that aims to create an exemplar design that could potentially be used as a blueprint for all new schools.

Panel Systems was chosen to supply the cladding infill panels at the new school, because of its experience in manufacturing a wide range of high specification architectural composite panels. It also had the manufacturing capabilities to cope with the exacting tolerances required to allow the panels to fit, right first time, onto the complex geometric oval shape of the steel-framed structure.

The panels were therefore an integral part of creating a well designed and constructed building that will be fit for purpose, easy to use and achieve optimum energy performance.

Monkseaton Community High School was opened by Sir John Sorrel - a former chair of the Design Council and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

Other environmental features on the school include solar power, reduced reliance on artificial lighting, along with energy saving electric lighting.

Panel Systems has the capability to manufacture panels from a wide range of alternative facing materials, such as aluminium and steel, along with timbers, including larch, oak and cedar. The company supplies a wide range of insulation materials that help meet increasingly stringent thermal performance requirements.

Email: marina@dragonflypr.co.uk