Mace Group

Sustainable education

Mace's construction management expertise was brought in by long term client Hertfordshire County Council to complete a 50,000 square foot two storey primary school.

Howe Dell School is the first fully sustainable school in the UK and features include wind turbines, solar panels, heat stores, water recycling and sedum roofs. It is also the first building in the world to benefit from interseasonal heat transfer, a new technology that captures solar energry from a pipe array embedded in the surface of the playground. The energy is then stored in thermal banks beneath the insulated foundation of the building and released to heat the school during winter.

Mace was awarded the main contracting role when the previous contractor went into administration in June 2006, leaving the structure and groundworks partially complete. Already in place as the outsourced project manager for the whole of Hertfordshire County Council's capital programme, a joint decision was made to procure the continuation of the project through a construction management form of contract to enable the project to be completed as quickly as possible. Considerable effort was put in to ensure the school was ready for the start of the new school year.

Members of Hertfordshire County Council were taken around the new facility on Tuesday 4th September 2007 and were very impressed with the building and the fact that Mace had managed to deliver the new school on schedule.

The client Hertfordshire County Council wanted to create an exemplar school in terms of sustainability and a flagship building that would set new standards in design and construction. Sustainable principles have been used throughout the design and construction of the new Howe Dell School in Hatfield which opened its doors to pupils for the first time on 5th September.

Mace was the construction manager, project manager and CDM coordinator on the Howe Dell project.

Features:

• Fully sustainable design
• Partial self generating electrical supply
• Materials used within the construction of the building and for furniture were subject to a sustainability audit.
• The building was part of the then DfES BREEAM pilot scheme and scored an excellent rating (the only building to do so) and aims to maintain that rating on completion once it has been reassessed.
• Solar water heating which is the first call in the provision of domestic hot water around the building.
• A ventilation system with an integrated ‘Termodeck' which uses the hollow cores of the floor and roof concrete planks to moderate the incoming fresh air via air handling units. This gives the ability to apply night time cooling of the mass of the building in summer to provide appropriate temperatures and sufficient fresh air to provide a comfortable and healthy internal environment.
• Interseasonal heat transfer provided by ICAX which captures solar energy from a pipe array embedded in the surface of the school playground, stores it and releases it to heat the school during the winter months.
• The school's curriculum computer network is interfaced with the building's management system to allow pupils to see and understand how the building is working and where energy is being used.

Photo Gallery

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Links

Howe Dell School
http://www.howedell.herts.sch.uk/

Icax Limited (provider of the interseasonal heat transfer technology)
http://www.icax.co.uk

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