St Albans High School

The Challenge
The Music Department at St Albans High School for Girls in Hertfordshire needed more space. To achieve this, a single-story building was proposed, the colour and texture of which needed to match the original buildings at the school. The new structure also needed to incorporate a musical theme. 

The Solution
Forterra supplied a bespoke blend to construct the new music building, which featured musical notes on a stave built into a curved external wall. Selected for their technical performance, the bricks were a mix of two manufactured from Staffordshire Etruria Marl Clay at Forterra’s Wilnecote facility. The brick specials were used as part of a header course in the curved feature wall of the building to provide variation to the exterior. Forterra’s easy-to-use brick-matching service made it simple for the architects to select the bricks most appropriate for the project. 

The Benefits
Rod Jenkins, Associate and Architect at Bickerdike Allen Partnership, said: “This new building was similar to conservation projects I had worked on before, but I’d previously used special bricks exclusively and wanted to try a different, more cost-effective approach.

“A colleague recommended using Forterra’s brick mixes as an alternative, and I found the Wilnecote brick mix offered a range of options of which the Blended Red Smooth and Dark Multi Smooth were most consistent with the existing architecture at the school.”

Lee Jones, Estates Manager for St Albans High School for Girls, said, “The innovative design of the new music building has attracted a lot of positive attention, and we’re delighted with way it looks.”