Case Study

Clydeview Academy, Inverclyde

Archial Sustainable Futures part of Ingenium Archial Limited kindly gave us access to documentation for Clydeview Academy in Gourock, Inverclyde, which is currently under construction. This allowed us to base our ESP-r model on reality. It is scheduled for transfer to staff in June 2011 and open to pupils in August 2011. This school was designed as part of a large PPP project undertaken by Inverclyde council to update school building stock for the county, where the council had a stated aim in providing sustainable schools for the future of teaching in the area.

Bayhill Rendering
Figure 1: Clydeview Academy1

Design Philosophy

The school was designed to embrace the fundamental elements involved in sustainable design such as energy efficiency and natural ventilation. The school is currently rated as BREEAM Very Good status with a score of 69.14%.

The key factor in the design of the school was to provide an “excellent learning environment”. Environmental comfort was paramount, ensuring that the school had an effective atmosphere for work and learning. Sufficient heating was a key issue. Where possible, natural lighting and natural ventilation were applied in the first instance before utilising mechanical means.

Low U-values in the fabric of the building were utilised, ensuring that the school is well insulated. In general, U-values for the building fabric were: ICT was seen as an important future factor for the learning environment of the pupils within the school especially with regard to Internet access and curriculum available online. Specific classrooms were defined in the school that could be used by all departments as ICT teaching areas, with available mechanical ventilation to control internal environment. However this was only in a limited number of classrooms; the vast majority of classrooms in the school are naturally ventilated with limited opportunity for temperature control.

With the limited availability of specifically designed ICT classrooms within the school and the projected increased availability of ICT technology, we wondered if there could be an issue regarding overheating in naturally ventilated classrooms.

As part of the design exercise, thermal modelling was carried out by an engineering firm to examine the thermal performance of the school and identify any weaknesses in the design. This study provides data on the operation of the school, its occupancy, hours of occupancy, climate, gains such as lighting, PCs, ventilation rates, and the like. This data is useful, as it provides a frame of reference against which our model can compare.




1. Archial Sustainable Futures part of Ingenium Archial Limited