design solutions


The path to a circular school


Swansea’s decision to refurb rather than rebuild Pentrehafod Secondary School was not purely financially driven as Stride Treglown’s design looks set to deliver a triumphant result for pupils, teachers, education chiefs and the environment. Lead designer Amy Twining explains the school’s rationale


project in Swansea is one of Construction Excellence Wales’s design exemplars. It applies the theoretical work of David


S


Cheshire, regional director and sustainability lead at AECOM. His thinking explores how the principles of the circular economy can be adopted by the construction sector. The goal is a regenerative built environment with adaptable buildings that can respond to change over time and whose materials can be reclaimed and reused. The target is zero waste. The idea is being embraced


wholeheartedly at Pentrehafod, with


ET to complete in November 2018, the Pentrehafod Secondary School refurbishment and extension


impressive results. What’s more, thanks to extensive collaborative working between key parties, the project team’s careful phasing plan is allowing the school to operate without interruption for the duration of the construction works. The 1,000-pupil inner city school’s two


blocks were in urgent need of major improvement. Not only was there an extensive maintenance backlog but many of their spaces were disjointed and inappropriately small for 21st century teaching needs. Stride Treglown was first engaged to


prepare a feasibility study on the existing school site by City and County of Swansea (CCoS) in 2011 through a competitive tender. It was later retained


for the whole project. As this was Stride Treglown’s eighth school for CCoS, there was already a well-established collaborative ethos between the two parties. Both the school leadership team and CCoS’s internal team were instrumental in shaping the resulting brief. Presented with the choice to demolish


and build afresh or work with what they had, CCoS opted to refurbish and extend. The £16m price tag versus £24m for new build of equivalent area - a capital saving of £8m – was of course persuasive. It was not the only reason, though. Importantly, the decision also met the ambition to adopt circular economy principles. Retaining the existing structure was on balance more sustainable and less wasteful. The project was subdivided into four


construction phases across the two-year build. As well as allowing the school to carry on without recourse to a disruptive and expensive decant solution, the plan maintained public access to the existing pool and sports facilities at all times. A significant part - 60% - of the


New-build work – highlighted in orange dotted lines – is kept to a minimum and integrates smoothly with the existing structures, preparing the school for 21st century teaching needs.


18 educationdab.co.uk


existing accommodation is being retained and reworked internally to provide spaces that comply with Building Bulletin 98 standards. The two existing disjointed buildings have been connected with a two-storey atrium. The existing courtyard has been cleared of the existing single- storey buildings and will form a new landscaped social heart for the school.


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