A new school of thought
A unique environmentally friendly school opened its doors to pupils in south yorkshire this march. We take a look around Ann’s Grove Primary School where cedar cladding is amongst its most sustainable features.
The new Ann’s Grove Primary School, designed by Bristol-based White Design, is a fine example of sustainable design and construction. It is one of the first new build schools in Yorkshire to be built entirely from timber, indicated largely through its high quality timber cladding from the outside sections of the building, and extensive use of wood in a number of internal and external doors. We have used sustainable materials wherever possible,” says Stuart Evans of main contractor Willmott Dixon. “Self-finished natural materials have been used inside and out, limiting resource use and fit out, decoration and lifetime maintenance costs. Cedar cladding has been also used for the walls and recycled denim jeans for the insulation.”
For an architect and specifier, claims timberpromoting organisation Wood for Good (WfG), converting timber into a usable building material takes far less energy and generates fewer greenhouse gases than any other construction material such as aluminium, steel and concrete. Not only that, the organisation continues, wood is an excellent insulating material with extremely good energy efficiency greatly reducing the “carbon footprint” of a building.
Charles Trevor, managing director of WfG, says: “Being a renewable resource, wood has an environmental edge over other construction materials. One cubic metre of wood substituted for fossil intensive materials, such as concrete or steel, saves an average of 0.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. So imagine the effect of substituting wood for a less sustainable material such as concrete when constructing a building the size of Ann’s Grove in Sheffield. The external envelope comprises superinsulated breathing construction using timber cladding sourced from the UK, while the main public space within the building, the school hall, features a dramatic glulam frame. Its strength, sustainability, energy efficiency, fire resistance and inherent aesthetic qualities make glulam the high-tech timber product of today, says WfG.
Glulam can be used in almost any type of building from simple dwellings to major public buildings and even large span bridges. The school’s existing hall, which was built in the 1970s, has been demolished to make way for landscaping and outdoor play areas. Elsewhere, the Victorian buildings that previously housed Ann’s Grove are to be redeveloped for adult and community education. The school project has shown that the more wood is used for construction and other products, the more beneficial it is in the fight against global warming. Ann’s Grove may go some way towards getting this message across to the next generation.
