1. Sustainable Buildings – five examples Presentation produced by CAT Education for the EPSRC funded project run by De Montfort University

2. Sustainable Buildings – recent examples Canolfan Hyddgen – educational building with council offices, Machynlleth Y Senedd – the Parliament building, Cardiff WISE at the Centre for Alternative Technology -teaching spaces and accommodation St Lukes primary school, Wolverhampton Welsh Assembly Government office building, Aberystwyth

3. Where does the architect start? The biggest impact buildings have on the planet is in the energy used in them. The largest amount of energy is normally used to heat the building but educational buildings often also use a lot of energy to run electrical appliances and lights. What’s important in an educational building? What does it have to do? Keep us comfortable - warm but not too hot Give us enough fresh air Provide us enough even light to be able to work Create a calm and relaxed atmosphere and lots more…..

4. Making the best use of the site which way should it face? Canolfan Hyddgen sits next to the main secondary School site in Machynlleth but slightly higher. It is in a wide open valley and gets many hours of sunshine. This side with a lot of windows faces south The windows are protected from too much midday summer sun by wide eaves and this brises soleil A wide corridor on the south side protects the teaching rooms from too much direct sun All of these buildings use solar energy to heat space and for light. Some of them also use it for heating water and generating electricity.

5. Making the best use of the site which way should it face? 2 WISE The Centre for Alternative Technology sits in a valley with a hill to the South so WISE had to be designed carefully to make as much use of the solar power available as possible St Lukes primary School is on an open site and is faced to use solar energy for light without overheating the building

6. South St Lukes WAG Aberystwyth Section of the WISE building bedrooms workshops courtyard foyer lecture theatre Large solar system – heating water for the bedrooms below Passive solar space heating Daylighting from rooflights Passive solar space heating of bedrooms WISE - Making the best use of a site

7. Solar gain – Walls that stop heat from escaping and walls that store heat Canolfan Hyddgen highly insulated external walls using Warmcel solid internal walls and floor = thermal mass Triple glazed windows Warmcel insulation - made from recycled newspapers Solar energy coming through the south facing windows of Canolfan Hyddgen provides 1/3 of the heating. The solar energy falls on the solid floor and internal walls and their thermal mass stores the heat overnight

8. Solar gain - and then storing the sun’s energy as heat - WISE On the south side of WISE a glazed area encloses the wall of the lecture theatre. The solar energy falls on the solid, dense earth wall which stores the heat overnight because of its thermal mass. Other internal walls on the ground floor in WISE are also dense - made of unfired earth blocks Double glazed low E windows Rammed earth wall The external walls in WISE are a 50cm thick mix of hemp and lime insulation.

9. Ventilation – keeping air fresh and staying cool enough Canolfan Hyddgen Y Senedd In St Lukes the classrooms are cross ventilated by natural wind flow from low level windows or vents that can be opened to the high clerestory windows that are opened automatically. Vents Thermal mass can take some heat out of the air but sometimes you need to do more. Many modern buildings use air conditioning but that uses a lot of energy. The vents are designed with wooden slats on the outside and a grill so that they can even be left open at night in the summer to cool the building down.

10. Ventilation – keeping air fresh and staying cool enough - WISE St Lukes Thermal mass can take some heat out of the air but frequently you need to do more. Many modern buildings use air conditioning but that uses a lot of energy. In the lecture theatre there is a heirarchy of cooling/ventilation systems. First a thermostat turns the underfloor heating off. Fresh air can flow from the lobby and up out through vents in the lantern (stack ventilation). Then a CO2 sensor can trigger air to be drawn with a fan out through vents half way up the wall and through a system that either recovers heat or draws in cool air, depending on the weather.

11. Ventilation – keeping air fresh and staying cool enough - Y Senedd Canolfan HyddgenY Senedd WISE St Lukes. The roof cowl is designed to rotate with changes in wind direction. This produces a negative pressure on the leeward side of the cowl that allows warm air to be drawn out of the Siambr

12. Ventilation – keeping air fresh and staying cool enough – the Passivhaus approach in Canolfan Hyddgen WISE St Lukes Passivhaus buildings have very high and specific standards for airtightness and high levels of insulation. A significant amount of the heat energy needed will come from people in the building and the lights and equipment, so the architects need to know exactly how the building will be used. If the temperature changes the automatic controls will decrease or increase heating, increase ventilation etc.

13. St Lukes high clerestory windows light up the classrooms. Coloured film has been added to create atmosphere Daylighting - light from the sun without glare WISE – the lecture theatre can be daylit from a huge sliding door and a circular roof light that is closed with a ‘Moon disc’ that rotates into place on a rail. North facing windows give you even light without glare

14. Daylighting - light from the sun without glare – Y Senedd The lantern allows natural daylight into the Siambr (Chamber where the Assembly members sit). A conical mirror within the lantern reflects additional daylight into the Siambr and this can be lowered to control daylight levels The public open area has very large areas of window giving views over the Bay and reinforcing the idea of an open democracy

15. Insulation and air tightness In the terrace floors in WISE the insulation is 25cm cork St Lukes Insulating materials all work because they contain bubbles of air. They vary in how much thickness you need and how much energy they take to make. If gaps are left between insulating materials it seriously reduces the efficiency of the system so ‘airtightness’ is important. It is easy to avaid gaps when you use materials like Warmcel and hemp lime which flow into all the spaces. All these buildings use insulating materials that are low energy to produce Spraying 50cm of hemp/lime into walls in WISE. The spongy centre of the hemp stems make a good insulator when it is that thick St Lukes and Canolfan Hyddgen use high levels of recycled newspaper (Warmcel) and WISE has 45cm of it in the roof

16. Renewable technologies – generating electricity Canolfan Hyddgen has 7kW of PV cells. These will generate about ¼ of the building’s electricity use CAT put in an extra 7kW of Photovoltaic cells attached to WISE (added to an existing set of 13kW). The 7kW should produce 5300kWh a year. PV cells are a very expensive way to generate electricity in the British climate. The efficiency of the building itself is much more important. The WAG building in Aberystwyth has a small wind turbine but WAG policy is also to buy green electricity which will come from much more efficient large scale windfarms

17. Renewable technologies – producing heat Canolfan Hyddgen Y Senedd As WISE has ensuite study bedrooms for people on courses, it uses far more hot water than the other buildings so it has a 70m2 solar water heating system. St Lukes, WISE and the Senedd have boilers that burn wood chip or wood pellets. WAG Aberystwyth CAT is experimenting with a large wood chip combined-heat-and- power plant to provide heat and electricity for WISE

18. Low energy computers were specified in Canolfan Hyddgen because such a precise system could overheat but it’s difficult to make sure that users continue to use low energy appliances. All these buildings use low energy lighting – LEDs and efficient fluorescent tubes. They also use sensors to turn them off when they are not needed LED lighting in WISE St Lukes WAG Aberystwyth Managing energy – electricity use Electrical devices use energy but they also give off heat which can make a big difference in a very well insulated building Low energy fridge in staff room at St Lukes

19. Low impact materials Y Senedd A compressed earth block wall in WISE St Lukes is an entirely timber building, including the wall cladding and the roof covering. WISE contains a large amount of timber. Both have used different timbers depending on the job that each has to do. Timber is low energy and also stores carbon. WAG Aberystwyth Rammed earth walls in WISE All of these buildings have used materials that are low impact, including FSC timber, local materials where that’s possible, re-used materials and, in most cases, organic paints etc.

20. In use – understanding and managing the buildings The manager at Canolfan Hyddgen makes sure that users know how the system works and how to manage it St Lukes Display WISE – the staff at CAT are very aware of energy management issues. St Lukes has displays in every room describing how the systems in the school work and the pupils will be able to access real time monitoring data of energy and water use on the School’s computers WAG Aberystwyth St Lukes also has a cut-away display in the lobby showing the warmcell insulation

21. Does the building smile at you? Canolfan HyddgenY Senedd WISE is very popular with its users – “It’s a great working environment” “I love taking round BTech construction groups. They are always wowed by it”. “It’s a new building and it doesn’t smell of plastic” St Lukes - The Head says “Children and staff are keen to work; they love their new learning environment” A pupil says – “a happy building that smiles at you” WAG Aberystwyth

22. Can the public come in? Canolfan Hyddgen is used by the community for courses and meetings The large lobby at the Senedd is open to the public all the time, tours of the building are run and there is a viewing gallery for the Assembly itself. WISE is open to visitors as often as possible All of these buildings want the public to come in. St Lukes Head: “It was important that we created spaces and facilities that could be used by the local families and groups in the community and this, I believe, is one of the key factors in our success”.

23. What about transport? The WAG building in Aberystwyth has been sited 10 minutes walk from the bus and railway stations and a new bus stop was built right outside. Staff are encouraged to cycle, use public transport and car share and the car park was deliberately built much smaller than has been usual with such buildings. Staff do not get a parking space unless they live more than 3 miles away. The WAG building in Aberystwyth has a café and information desk in its lobby for visitors. The whole office is part of the Welsh Assembly’s policy to spread its staff around the country so that they can be more in touch with people.

24. How successful are they? Canolfan Hyddgen has achieved an 85% reduction in heat energy use compared with a standard building and it has just won the CIBSE award for New Build Project of the Year. Y Senedd building’s total energy consumption dropped by 20% between 2008/9 and 2009/10. There were also significant drops in travel for work and an 18% reduction in transport emissions. WISE is being thoroughly monitored but it is too early to have results but it was named best new building in Britain in 2010 by the Daily Telegraph. The building process was monitored in great detail. Data was collected of all the materials and energy used and energy in use is being recorded as well. St Lukes WAG Aberystwyth St Lukes is also too new to have detailed results but it won the 2010 RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools Award.