21 May 2010
A new college building in Manchester has won an award for being one of “the best of the best sustainable buildings” in the UK at the BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) Awards 2010.
The Ellis and Kennedy Building at the Loreto Sixth Form College, which has a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’, was the winner of the best building in the ‘Further Education’ category, acknowledging its performance in the areas of energy, materials, waste, water, ecology, pollution, transport, management, and health and wellbeing.
Sheila Mackenzie, Principal BREEAM Consultant, WYG Engineering said: “The key to achieving the BREEAM Excellent on this project was the commitment to sustainability by the design team at an early stage and throughout the design process. The fact that they were open to new ideas made this an interesting and successful project to work on.”
The development provides accommodation for traditional and specialist curriculum subjects, a learning resource centre, ICT facilities and a library. A number of factors had to be taken into consideration including the fact that the building is on a brownfield site, within the curtilage of a Grade II listed chapel, as well as being bordered by a busy city arterial route.
Involving the contractor in reducing site impacts was considered particularly important on this site, because of the tight working space available and the potential effects on the existing college. This was achieved by adopting good work practices, reading and monitoring water and energy consumption, managing waste and ensuring sustainable materials were used for all temporary works.
“The brief was to deliver a state of the art teaching facility that promotes sustainable design to the college and its wider community. The design team and client took ownership of the need to protect the environment and provide a sustainable building at an early stage: Targets for reducing CO2 in the building and use of renewable and low carbon technologies were set and exceeded.” Sheila added.
The building is currently being commissioned and will be opening for the new academic year.
