Norman & Underwood were pleased to be awarded the contract to supply and fix the copper cladding to this unique building. Shoe-horned between an existing school, a footpath and mature trees, architects Peter Haddon & Partners’ design was driven by imagery of brightly coloured boxes strewn across the floor.

Meeting Northamptonshire County Council’s brief for a visionary, inspirational and playful building, the main play space is a cube with secondary areas as irregular blocks scattered around. Copper shingles clad the various blocks with different treatments to reflect the various stages of oxidation and patination. Pre-oxidised copper gives a mellow, dark brown colour contrasting with the bright mill-finish material, while pre-patinated copper gives straightaway the distinctive green patina of older copper roofs. Project architect, Mark Pennington, said: “We needed to find a material that was delightful, robust, tactile, maintenance-free and able to retain our design concept – the answer was copper.”