Our educational experts bring benefits by providing the expertise and services that enable us to concentrate on the primary objective of a primary or secondary school facility – pupils’ learning.
By combining knowledge of key issues in the education sector with technical skills and in-depth understanding of strategic initiatives, we provide an holistic service embracing education consultancy and management, project procurement and management, technical advisory, design, delivery, construction economics and risk management.
We collaborate closely with architects from the earliest stages of a project to provide building services and engineering, incorporating energy efficient features and structural solutions to facilitate construction and give future flexibility. We can provide innovative design for all types of academic facilities including libraries, laboratories, lecture halls and campus zones.
Our ability to interpret sustainability policy – which we’ve often helped shape – means we can see the big picture and cut through issues to deliver the right planning solutions. And our informed approach means we can respond to mechanical and electrical solutions that match or exceed the stakeholders’ sustainability aspirations.
How we add value is demonstrated on these educational projects:
Kingsdale School
Our sustainability specialists designed the first active daylight control ETFE roof. The UK school was remodelled to create a dramatic new space using the ETFE roof over the central courtyard, providing a new library, auditorium, music block and refurbishment of classrooms. The project was managed without decanting.
Iraq Marsh Arabs
A school we designed is reconnecting Basra’s Marsh Arabs with a lost cultural identity. The project is unique in that the school provides all modern-day educational facilities but addresses the traditional heritage of the Marsh Arabs. For example, the school outwardly resembles a communal house or ‘mudhif’. We researched the concept and provided architectural engineering and project management.
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
We designed the new concert hall to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating, providing natural ventilation and high grade insulation. The auditoria are fed fresh air from large plena beneath the terraced seating. This bottom-up method of cooling and heating is efficient as air is supplied directly to the audience without the mixing that would occur from high level supply, so less cooling is required.
Meadowhead Secondary School
Mott MacDonald designed windows to naturally ventilate classrooms throughout the year instead of incorporating expensive fans or ventilation stacks – saving £500,000, eliminating operating costs of mechanical ventilation and lowering the school’s carbon footprint. Feedback after a year of operation confirms that the strategy works.
