Alleyn's All Studios — Bespoke Metalwork by Make Bespoke Studio

Education — Bespoke Metalwork

Frames, mesh and colour for a school designed around voice, collaboration and immersion

Alleyn’s school had an established All Studios programme in Dulwich. The brief for its new Regent’s Park site — on the former North Bridge House School building, as part of the Cognita group — was not to replicate it but to improve on it. The AiQ framework, Alleyn’s approach to learning built around voice, collaboration and immersion, was the foundation of the brief: clearer, tougher, more adaptable for a curriculum that brings human intelligence and digital fluency together.

Our commission was to produce the bespoke metalwork that would carry the making, performing and presenting demands of that curriculum — frames, mesh panels, mounts, locking and access hardware. All of it designed in collaboration with Envoplan, the lead studio, and the school’s chosen joinery company, so steel and birch-faced ply would read as one integrated system.

Concept to Detail

Turning intent into detail

Envoplan mapped the journey through Voice, Co-lab and Immersion so the space reads as a sequence rather than a scatter of kit. We joined the project early enough to help turn intent into detail: isolating the metal packages — frames, mesh, mounts, locking and access — and working in parallel with the joinery company so steel and birch-faced ply feel like one system. Drawings were shared, tolerances agreed, and cable routes confirmed before a single cut line hit the steel. The slotted upright system gives teachers freedom to move screens and display artefacts as the curriculum evolves, without remaking the casework.

The Palette

Cheerful without being childish

Colour does a lot of work in the space. We finished the frames in RAL 6038 Luminous Green and RAL 4005 Blue Lilac, two tones that do more than decorate. The green energises movement and making; the lilac calms focus and presentation. Mesh panels keep sightlines open and lend a subtle exhibition quality, without losing definition.

Birch-faced ply softens the touchpoints, bringing warmth to desktops and access panels, and the floor follows function: cork for acoustic calm where voices matter, vinyl where wheeled kit and messier making are a fact of life. It is a palette that is cheerful without being childish; serious about work without being severe.

From Workshop to Classroom

A disciplined path through cutting, welding and finishing

Turning concept into craft began, as it always does, in the workshop. From Envoplan’s design intent we produced fabrication drawings and set out a disciplined path through cutting, welding, finishing and assembly. Sections were CNC-cut and mitre-sawn for accuracy; mesh was sheared and formed to sit flat, and every edge was deburred so the touch reads clean and safe. We jigged the frames on a flat bed to hold them true, MIG-welded the primary structure and switched to TIG where the seam would be on show.

Because this is a classroom, serviceability matters as much as strength: mesh sits in concealed channels with mechanical fixings so panels can be removed for maintenance without harming the finish. Lockable doors and shelves use captive inserts to protect threads over years of use, and slotted uprights give teachers freedom to move screens and artefacts without remaking the casework.

Finishing

A tough, even coat — exactly what a busy studio needs

Fabrications moved through a multi-stage pre-treatment — degrease, rinse, dry-off — before electrostatic powder application in Luminous Green and Blue Lilac. Oven curing set a tough, even coat that shrugs off scuffs and wipes clean easily. Back from finishing, we refitted hardware, tuned door reveals and made room for the birch elements using movement-tolerant brackets.

The programme was tight: three weeks of manufacture to meet a September 2025 opening. Layouts evolved as the client team fine-tuned the pedagogy; AV specifications landed live. We sequenced deliveries to protect finished parts, kept re-drill plates and swap-out brackets on hand for last-minute changes, and worked around parallel trades in a compact window.

The Result

Precision where it counts, colour with purpose

For pupils, a playful, legible studio where making, performing and presenting feel intuitive, and where technology enhances the lesson rather than stealing the show. For teachers, secure storage, tidy cabling and fast reconfiguration as modes shift through the day. For the estate team, a durable, maintainable kit-of-parts that can be repaired, re-powder-coated and upgraded over time.

The choices carry a light sustainability touch too: renewable cork where it counts, targeted use of vinyl where performance is essential, and steel and birch components designed for disassembly so parts can be swapped rather than scrapped. Alleyn’s Regent’s Park is, in many ways, a second chapter, and the brief said ‘improve on what came before.’ Our bespoke metalwork shows at its best: precision where it counts, colour with purpose, and a generosity of detail that makes daily life easier for the people who use it.