Buildings Working
T
he 2016 deadline for all new school buildings to lies in “general ignorance” of crucial codes and
be zero carbon will soon be upon us, and many guidance when designing a building, according to
schools have already been designed and built Colin Ashford, an independent consultant.
Building
with ‘low energy’ or ‘zero carbon’ in mind. So During the audit work, open-ended questions were professionals
the zero-carbon goal is within our grasp, then. Perhaps put to design team members regarding the codes and
gave answers
not, fear some experts in the field, who have found that guidance they should be following when designing a
schools built in recent years have often proved to be far building. He found that many of the answers clearly
he describes as
from energy efficient. identified a lack of knowledge on some of the key ‘very obviously
Robin Nicholson, chairman of the Task Force on design issues. He says he is disappointed that building
wrong or an
Zero Carbon Schools, says there is an enormous professionals gave answers he describes as “very
amount of energy and a lot of effort going into trying obviously wrong or an attempt to cover their lack of
attempt to cover
to make buildings perform better. But, he adds: “There knowledge”. their lack of
is a very big gap between that and zero carbon.” This “lack of knowledge” has resulted in school
knowledge’
To make matters more complicated, the government buildings overheating during the summer, poor
is still trying to define what zero carbon means, but acoustics and ventilation, and daylight glare that leaves
the chairman of CIBSE School Design Group, John schools operating with their blinds down and lights on
Palmer, says the industry is working on the “shrewd throughout the day, among other issues.
idea” that it is a building that has a “very, very low “Quite a number of schools reviewed on best value
energy consumption, a low carbon demand”, with would not be compliant – that’s worrying,” Ashford told
energy coming from low-carbon sources. the recent CIBSE School Design seminar, ‘A Roadmap
But a study by the Commission for Architecture and to Zero Carbon School Buildings’.
the Built Environment (CABE) in 2006 found that, “Unless the whole procurement team is trained
of nearly 60 new schools built, only 19 per cent were to an adequate extent in the competencies related to
considered to be good or excellent in this regard, and schools specification, design and operation, we have
more than 50 per cent were badly designed. little chance of going anywhere near low-carbon impact
During the past seven years audits looking at the schools that are fit for purpose.”
design quality of more than 120 schools and other Now Ashford is developing a range of competencies
buildings in the UK found that much of the problem and skills training as part of some government- >
www.cibsejournal.com March 2009 CIBSE Journal 27
CIBSEmar09 pp26-29 schools.indd 27 5/3/09 14:10:53
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