Relocatable classrooms that meet sustainability objectives
Relocatable classrooms that meet sustainability objectives
Prefabricated Relocatable Classroom
Background
With school space increasingly becoming community space too, Telford and Wrekin Borough Council wanted to explore possibilities for relocatable school classrooms that could serve multiple uses while meeting sustainability objectives. It appointed Integer, a partnership for green and intelligent building, to help formulate a working brief and project manage two separate classrooms through to completion.
Building details |
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| Type of building: |
Prefabricated Relocatable Classroom |
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| Year of construction/ Floor area: |
Year: 2003 / floor area: 169 m² |
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| Heating and cooling / measures installed |
- The units are highly insulated and designed to use passive solar gain and waste heat from the ICT and the occupants;
 There is no traditional heating system;
A small amount of under floor heating is installed to pre-heat the building after periods of non-use during cold periods;
The automatic ventilation units also help conserve the heat. |
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ProjectDescription |
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| Aim |
To create prefabricated, modular and multiple-use classrooms that meet sustainability criteria while providing a suitable learning environment. |
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| Key points |
_ Technical Features
Classrooms have single-point foundations of screw piles, suitable for relocation;
Each classroom comprises four, 12m long prefabricated modules;
Eco-Warrior energy monitoring software was installed, and delivers monitoring data to interactive classroom whiteboards;
As well an increasing insulation levels, low-energy lighting with presence detectors, solar water heating and photovoltaics (more than enough capacity for the lighting, but not enough for IT);
Perhaps the most evident energy strategy is the building’s section and orientation towards the South;
The conservatory has a sedum roof with motorised vents and integrated triple wall polycarbonate glazing and roller shutters mounted to the walls while light pipes and wind-catchers bring natural light and ventilation into the depth of the classroom space;
One of the classrooms is clad with untreated western red cedar while the other is clad with galvanised steel mesh screens, on which plants will be encouraged to grow.
Use
The classrooms are currently shared by juniors and secondary school students, rather than having a permanent class base;
The management group plans to avail the separate classrooms to other schools as well as community groups, and to use them as bases for staff training.
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| Reason for inclusion as Shining Example |
These classrooms show-piece a rich array of technical features that champion sustainability in buildings, but this Shining Example also demonstrates the role of specialist expertise and community involvement, once the prerequisite leadership from within the Council is established. |
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Colour-coded according to time periods
Profiles can be in units, costs, or demand of energy monitored
Profiles can be in yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly or daily data
Costs&Benefits |
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| Costs &
funding
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The cost for one classroom, based on the final accounts, for the gross internal area is €2,910m2, for the two–off prototypes, with a view to further batch production. |
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| Benefits |
Savings in energy and maintenance costs, when compared to traditional construction are estimated at €121/m2/a. |
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Partners&Roles |
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| Partnership details |
Partnership was central to the success of these classrooms: Telford and Wrekin brought Integer on board to project manage the developments and to provide technical expertise; Yorkon provided specialist skills in prefabrication, while school students and the wider community were consulted to ensure that features of the building and the building process met with their needs. |
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Recommendations |
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| Achievements |
Integer took some time understanding the prefabrication system and the potential to customise standard offerings such as: under floor cabling; background electric heating; ceiling lighting without suspended ceilings; and increased levels of insulation.
Telford and Wrekin are currently evaluating the net benefits of this kind of school building before deciding whether to roll out further variants: whether a market for generously sized prefabricated units (by normally 55m2 standards) can be developed remains to be seen.
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| Lessons Learned |
These classrooms perform at least as well as their more conventional cousins in terms of their primary purpose – to provide suitable learning environments; they also meet emerging needs for sustainability and given space constraints, and in addition they suggest new possibilities to other schools. |
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