The 2013 UK BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) Education Award was proudly received by the team at Bridgend County Borough Council for Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen designed by Scott Brownrigg Architects. This new community focused secondary school campus; part of the ‘Gateway to the Valleys Scheme’ was one of the 17 winning projects announced at the BREEAM awards. These awards recognise the achievement of those involved in the specification, design and construction of BREEAM assessed buildings whilst demonstrating a holistic approach to all environmental aspects of design and construction. The awards also reflect the continuing priority given to sustainability by developers and owners, despite the tough economic climate.
Charcoal facing brickwork
The aim of this scheme was to achieve BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating for the funding to be allocated, however it has been awarded the first BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ High School of its type in the UK. Utilising durable products such as the 400,000 Blockleys Charcoal Smooth bricks has improved thermal performance and increased the longevity of this project. MBH is proud that its natural clay products were used in this pioneering educational building to enhance the learning environment for the local community and for future generations to benefit and enjoy it. 
The new community campus lies on an existing 39 acre site, incorporates a 1,570 pupil comprehensive school for ages 11 to 18 including a 1980m2 dedicated community facility. Images copyright of Scott Brownrigg Architects.
Scott Brownrigg Architects were appointed by Bridgend County Borough Council’s Children’s Directorate to design the new secondary school and community campus with a total budget spend of £34 million. This represents one of the largest single investments in a shared community and education building in Wales. To include a café, a multi- agency hub, child care unit and provide multiple spaces for various other community activities. The BREEAM Education Award acknowledges the achievements of all those involved in the school and its realisation. With a passive design strategy and the incorporation of a number of sustainable technologies, Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen achieved a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating at design stage with an impressive score of 89.82%, the school is also being used as an exemplar project for the Low Carbon Research Institute.
Bridgend accepting the BREEAM Education Award, Ecobuild.
A community ‘heart space’
Neil MacOmish, Group Director at Scott Brownrigg’s Cardiff office said, “We are delighted that Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen has been recognised at these high profile national sustainability awards. We are very proud to have helped deliver a school that not only the council, but Wales can be proud of. The design concept and materials are very much rooted to the context and history of the site, occupying part of a former colliery. Conceived as a series of ‘colleges’ grouped around a community ‘heart space’ – the geometries are derived from existing axes and from specific references to elements found within the existing context. The composition of the forms are conceived in black brickwork, render and trespa panels; the black brickwork represents the coal extraction, the trespa panels represent the forest from where this came, whilst the white render is a modernist expression of context. The Learning Resource Centre acts as the entrance signal ‘floating drum’ and hinge which ties the angular geometries together.”
Greater flexibility for teaching and learning
This project will create a new community focused secondary school to replace two other schools within the County Borough that were both energy inefficient and not fit for purpose. It will also help to address surplus places, enable operational efficiencies to be achieved and enable greater flexibility for teaching and learning to meet the needs of pupils now and in the future.
The aim of this project is to create a landmark building and grounds that will act as a base for a multi- agency hub, offering support for young people and the wider community. An important element of this is providing a building that is environmentally and economically sustainable. The colleges therefore support the ‘schools within a school’ concept and can operate as individual units to allow the school to close and open sections of the building, which will be available for community engagement, outside of school hours.
A high quality external learning landscape includes covered canopies, swales and a trim trail, whilst a public plaza links the school, community facilities and the existing Ynysawdre pool together.
The school was handed over in September 2013 and has been delivered in a single construction phase – a design and delivery process which has saved a year on the original programme and facilitates an early occupation and demolition of the existing premises.
With a building size of 14500m2 a variety of key environmental features are required, such as the connection to a combined heat and power (CHP) unit that will provide electricity to the school, PV panels on the roof, solar thermal rainwater and greywater harvesting. Natural ventilation principles are also featured throughout.
Low impact materials were specified across the scheme and consideration given to product life cycle and maintenance impacts. More than 15% recycled content has been calculated and measured by the WRAP toolkit, and over 90% of the total aggregate will be utilised from recycled sources.
Mark Goode from Brickability, Distributor of the Blockleys Smooth Charcoal 65mm bricks for Brownrigg’s design, was delighted to be involved and explains the complexities of the project. ”Required to have EU compliance, the key design aspect of the brickwork brief entailed a sensitive selection of colour and texture with a strong emphasis on a robust and durable product to cope with an active school environment. We worked closely with the design architect and project team to achieve the results required, it was also a delicate logistical operation as the construction progressed alongside a live school. Deliveries were carefully managed to ensure product quality and safety was achieved throughout the build programme.”
Serving excess energy to neighbouring facilities
The development is very much a community project, capitalising on the need for a new school as an opportunity to incorporate wider facilities that are not otherwise available in the community. Additionally, the scheme will operate a Combined Heat and Power system between the existing adjacent Leisure Centre and the school. The system has been scaled up to eventually serve a neighbouring elderly person’s home. Any excess electricity generated will be fed to the school. Significant social benefits are also expected during construction through engagement with local schools, recruitment and training of economically inactive individuals whilst providing business opportunities for local suppliers.
Andrew Warren, Head Teacher at Coleg Cymunedol Y Dderwen comments: “Scott Brownrigg’s design is truly stunning. The team has a real and deep understanding of how space can be used to support educational innovation and transformation. Without this level of real engagement, real partnership, and real energy, we would not be where we are now – poised to occupy the most iconic and world class building that will support all of the many curricular, pedagogical and relationship transformations that we wish to introduce.”
