Schools and education facilities supplement Case study
Class of its own
The New Project of the Year in the 2010 CIBSE Low Carbon Awards
exemplifi es effective use of natural light and ventilation in an urban school
environment that meets stringent low-energy targets. Simon Ellery reports
he City Academy, Hackney, was offi cially to optimise natural daylight and ventilation, maintain
T
opened as recently as September last year, comfortable temperatures and control noise, while
with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and also ensuring that the building complemented the
Schools Secretary Ed Balls in attendance, nearby renowned grade two-listed Sutton House.
but it is already an awarding-winning project. This The school design claims to have made cutting-edge
month it was crowned New Build Project of the Year in use of natural daylight via four ‘light wells’ that run
the CIBSE Low Carbon Performance Awards 2010. through the centre of the building to ensure natural
The school has received an A rating in its energy daylight on both sides of the classrooms. These
performance certificate despite major challenges corridor atria are big enough to ‘fl ood light into the
posed during the design process, including having to heart of the building’ and allow warm air up to stop
move the site midway through its development. The classrooms overheating, says Bentham.
project enlisted the help of the Sorrell Foundation to ‘We worked closely so that, as well as being spaces
help gather ‘young client’ feedback from feeder schools to move around the school, the corridors were extra
“We are not
– input which infl uenced the academy’s brief, design wide, to work in terms of drawing in natural daylight,’
and construction. he adds.
moving large
But perhaps the secret to its success is that engineers Under dull conditions, or at night, daylight is
amounts of
were involved in the project before the school had a augmented by efficient artificial lighting. These
air around the
structure. ‘We were involved before the building artifi cial lights are controlled by sensors that base
even had a shape,’ says Tom Bentham, a partner at additional artifi cial lighting levels on readings taken
building over
Max Fordham consulting engineers. ‘We were there from the fl oor or the tables and switch off lighting
long distances,
advising on the shape to make it work in terms of when the classroom is empty. The academy achieves
which reduces
environmental conditions.’ a daylight factor of 7.5 per cent on the third fl oor, 4.3
Studio E Architects and Max Fordham worked per cent on the second and 3.9 per cent on the fi rst.
energy
closely on the project to create a campus engineered The Society of Light and Lighting’s LG5 Lighting for >
consumption”
The daylight strategy for a typical classroom module at Detail of façade
City Academy, Hackney
F
ordham
Max
www.cibsejournal.com February 2010 CIBSE Journal 5
CIBSEfeb10_School_pp4-6,8_Academy.indd 5 25/1/10 15:37:56
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