HomeSector ReportsNorth East VisionSpring 2008
New college at green technology forefront
Mar 20 2008 By The Journal
Redcar and Cleveland’s new £26m college is blazing a trail in green technology and raising the bar for the design of our future public buildings, as
He said: “I had a vision of a ‘green’ college– as environmentally friendly as we could make it.
“We want a building that the people of Redcar and Cleveland can be proud of, which is also a building for many generations to come.”
With this in mind, the college worked closely with The Carbon Trust to ensure its “footprint” would be as small as possible.
New-build project manager Jeanette Judge said: “As the design progressed, more and more green projects were built in and the college’s dream started to become a reality.
“It’s incredibly exciting to be part of a project like this - it only happens once in a lifetime – and to see our vision being transformed is fantastic.”
Among the energy saving initiatives being built in are intuitive urinals which use recycled rainwater and only flush when they are used, saving gallons of water per day.
Rubble from part of the old building will be used for the new car park, and intuitive lights, which turn themselves off if the room is unoccupied or sufficient sunlight is coming through, will also be incorporated. The college is also keen to use contractors who can offer environmentally friendly materials such as renewable wood, and will employ as many local suppliers as possible, as well as expanding its recycling and energy saving efforts.
When it came to energy, the college has also reached out for cutting edge fuel cell technology including solar power cells.
Mr Groom said: “This college belongs to the community it serves and those of us working on its development now have a responsibility which goes well beyond our tenure for a sustainable future.”
The new Redcar and Cleveland College will be ready for occupation in September this year – right on target.
What’s been described as an “iconic” building, designed by architects Nightingales, will include state-of-the-art facilities for hair and beauty therapy, sports and fitness, health and care, art and design, construction and engineering and A-levels. It will also feature a large refectory, internet café, student services area and fitness suite.
Funding came from the LSC, proceeds from the sale of land at the Connections Campus on Redcar Lane and a college loan.
Mr Groom said: “I am sure that the new Redcar and Cleveland College is going to give a huge boost to everyone in the community and I think it is going to create a whole lot more civic pride.
“It will be a true representation of what the college is striving to achieve through its mission by Raising Aspirations and Exceeding Expectations.”
Energy efficient design proves to be a winner
DEWJOC’S Architects in Stockton, which specialises in sustainable design, has found that while there is much talk of sustainable technologies, most of them are bolt-ons, such as wind turbines or photovoltaics.
The problem is that this generation of renewable energy is expensive and, until the costs begin to fall, does not represent the most economic alternative. With this in mind Dewjo’c Architects has recently been to Germany to assess world-leading developments in energy efficient design.
Unlike the bolt-on approach favoured in the UK energy efficient technologies are, within the whole life of a building, very cost effective. In fact when bundled together in the right manner, they can achieve a seven-year payback and reduce energy use by up to 85%. Energy efficient design is so cost effective that in February 2003 the City Parliament of Frankfurt declared that, “all kindergartens and schools are to be of PassivHaus standard”.
The PassivHaus standard is suitable for both new and refurbished buildings, as testified by the 6,000 or so PassivHaus buildings in Germany and Austria. With regard to refurbishment, residential buildings, rather than offices or schools, have mainly benefited from the PassivHaus standard. If it were not for the fundamentally poor environmental quality of many of the UK’s older education establishments, there is no practical reason why the standard could not be applied to existing buildings here.
"Why hasn’t the UK adopted this level of energy efficiency yet? The truth may lie in the fact that the UK has never had voluntary energy performance standards that could be used to help focus the mind. Instead we have made do with building regulations, believing they are best practice," said the firm's Mark Siddall.
Over the last 14 months Dewjo’c Architects, which is a member of the AECB: The Sustainable Building Association, has been steadily researching how to design and construct projects to the exacting PassivHaus standard.
Compared to existing building stock the refined performance of the PassivHaus standard enables an 80% reduction in carbon emissions. The standard relies on super-insulated walls and windows and a well-sealed building fabric to reduce energy consumption. Its mechanical ventilation system provides excellent air quality, 100% fresh air, as well as a highly efficient “heat recovery” system. The exceptional air quality helps to ensure that carbon dioxide levels are kept low within classrooms and lecture theatres, ensuring that students, and lecturers don’t begin to feel drowsy.
Reinvesting the 85% cost savings, delivered through reduced energy bills, across education facilities could be used to provide millions of pounds worth of support and resources for British schools, colleges and universities. Furthermore studies have shown that excellent daylighting, which is required to reduce energy use, reportedly enables improved productivity including a 21% increase in learning rate. Just think what this could do for helping to making the world a better place to live.
Applying the whole suite of PassivHaus concepts means that a building retains the energy from students’ classroom activities and uses it to heat the building. In a nutshell you could say that a school is heated by “kido-watts” rather than the traditional measurement of consumed energy known as the kilowatt.