Newport High School receives BREEAM rating of Excellent
Excellent sustainable school
Newport High School is a model of sustainability. It is the first
school in Wales to receive a BREEAM rating of Excellent. HLM
architects designed the building complex, which was built by the
Leadbitter Group in close cooperation with the Newport City
Council. The school exceeded the BREEAM Excellent rating
threshold with 73 points. BREEAM (BRE Environmental
Assessment Method) provides information on the overall
ecological impact of a building, from its planning and
construction to its use. Buildings are rated on a scale from ‘pass’
to ‘good’ and ‘very good’ to ‘excellent’ and receive a
corresponding certificate. A wide range of criteria are taken into
consideration: management, health and comfort, energy, water,
materials and garbage, property ecology as well as air and
water pollution.
To optimize its energy efficiency, Newport High School was
given a heat-insulated exterior shell. The school uses a
combined energy and heating system with solar water heaters
and thermal storage as well as floor heating. The CO 2 output is
20% lower than required by law. Other sustainable aspects are
the use of rain water, the recycling of used water and a drainage
system. In the construction, preference was given to the local
work force and local materials. In order to bring awareness to
the students on the topic of sustainability, a digital display in the
main hallway indicates how much has been saved thanks to
solar energy and recycled water. An outdoor wildlife area
increases the biodiversity in the region and is a living learning
center for the students at the same time.
Newport High School is a traditional school with 34 class rooms,
eight modern labs and eight computer labs, a very well-
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equipped technology wing, six rest areas, a vocational training
center and a materials storage facility. Additionally, the leisure
facility, the Active Living Centre, also welcomes visitors from the
surrounding area. After normal school hours, the public has
access to the 25-meter swimming pool, fitness rooms, a large
artificial turf field, various playgrounds and sports fields, a café
and even a dance studio. The modern school and leisure
activities complex should provide the next generations of school
children with the highest quality facilities for a top-notch and upto-date education.
Students and visitors make their way to the entrance to the new
building through a kind of piazza. The five wings of the school
fan out from the open and bright main hall. To make it easier for
people to get their bearings, each wing is color-coded. The area
between the large windows is painted in a single color: green,
red, purple or blue. Only one of the five wings, the Active Living
Center, is intended for public use. The other areas are
exclusively for school and student use. The students go from the
entrance hall to their classrooms, while visitors must go through
their own reception area directly to the leisure facilities.
The interior of the school’s two-story wings is also extremely
bright and welcoming. The central atrium stretches all the way to
the roof above both floors. Large windows in the ceiling allow
light to penetrate down to the ground floor. On the first floor, the
rooms are located off open galleries. With flexible classrooms
and common areas in each wing, the architects consciously
created rooms for various subjects and learning environments –
for large and small groups, a traditional classroom atmosphere
and completely free-flowing concepts.
To help people identify where they are, the wing interiors are
coded with their respective color – green, red, purple or blue –
with colorful wall pieces for example. A bright linoleum stripe
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runs through the hallways to the common areas of each wing,
where the entire floor is covered in its respective color. All four
colors are used in rooms used by all the students – the
cafeteria, the auditorium, the gym or the entrance area.
Befitting the sustainable building, the builder selected natural
flooring: DLW Linoleum by Armstrong. It is made out of
predominantly renewable raw materials such as linseed oil, saw
dust, limestone, jute, resin and cork. Linoleum is also healthy,
has low emissions and has received many environmental seals
of approval, the Blauer Engel, the Austrian Environment
Certificate and the Scandinavian Swan seal, among others.
With its comprehensive 56-color system, DLW Linoleum
Marmorette was the right fit for the color-coding of the individual
building wings. Thanks to its light structure, the flooring is dirtresistant and easy to clean. DLW linoleum is also slip-resistant,
noise-reducing and very well insulated. Its low maintenance
costs, toughness and durability make it very economical.
Armstrong applies a high-quality PUR Eco System coating to its
DLW linoleum at the factory, making it even easier to clean,
saving time, electricity and water and again dramatically
reducing the on-going maintenance costs over the long run. The
PUR Eco System enhances the already positive ecological
impact to boot.
More information
www.armstrong.eu.
is
available
Photo captions:
Armstrong highschool Newport_1.jpg
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Photos: Armstrong/Girts Gailans
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