BAM has been appointed by the government to create a net-zero pathfinder school, with the aim of shaping future school design.
It will build a teaching and communal building for Southam College in Warwickshire, which has 1,652 students.
The college will achieve net-zero carbon emissions and low energy use, but will also employ passive and biophilic design, climate resilience, and health and wellbeing elements.
BAM, which has just begun enabling works, will act not only as contractor – its design team is lead architect and it has conducted extensive energy and climate modelling, interior design, and is providing the school with a strategy for achieving a net-zero carbon in operation position for the rest of the estate’s life. It is also behind the structural engineering and MEP design.
Among new facilities at the school will be science labs, a hall, drama facilities, 3D art room, photographic facilities, food tech areas, music rooms, a sixth form hub, reception, and a dedicated special educational needs base. There will also be an AV teaching wall facility.
Dave Ellis, regional director for BAM in the Midlands, said: “The building will be net zero in operation, and we are also reducing the embodied carbon – the carbon in the actual materials used in the construction. We’ve evaluated the base design and produced a range of options to reduce embodied carbon.
“What we learn from Southam College will feed into the Department [for Education]’s wider approach to reducing carbon in the education field. In addition, we’ll add additional significant extra social value by using local companies in our supply chain, and work around the school so classes and activities continue uninterrupted during the project.
“BAM has robust strategies responding to the climate emergency we face and putting the health and wellbeing of the students and teachers at the core of the new facilities.”
