Howe Dell School, Herts. Image: Peter Durant
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Howe Dell School, Herts. Image: Peter Durant
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Howe Dell School, Herts. Image: Peter Durant
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Howe Dell School, Herts. Image: Peter Durant
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Howe Dell School, Herts. Image: Peter Durant
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Howe Dell School, Herts. Image: Peter Durant
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The facts
Client: Hertfordshire County
Council
Location: Hatfield (South East
England)
Services: Architecture and
Interiors
Sector: Education
Contract Type: Bespoke PM+
Project Value: £10m
Start/Completion: 2006 - September 2007
The project
The former site of the Howe Dell School was deemed unfit
for purpose by Ofsted inspectors. It was cramped, draughty, and
threatened with closure.
Commissioned by Hertfordshire County Council, Capita
Architecture’s brief was to design a new landmark school that would
not only feature the latest in sustainable technology, but would
also act as a beacon project for schools across the county.
Situated a mile and a half away from the old site, the new Howe
Dell School and Children’s Centre features passive low energy
building techniques and a host of renewable energy technologies -
including a 20kW wind turbine capable of exporting surplus
electricity production to the National Grid. However, the school
has garnered particular global attention thanks to its
revolutionary new Interseasonal Heat Transfer System [IHTS] to heat
and cool the buildings.
Developed by ICAX, the new system works by capturing heat energy
from the sun via a collection pipe network just beneath the surface
of the school playground. It stores energy in computer-controlled
thermal banks in the ground under the school, releasing it to heat
the buildings in winter via a series of heat exchangers linked to
both the underfloor heating and a TermoDeck ventilation system. Not
only that, it is also able to capture the frost of cold winter
nights, store it, and use it to keep the building cool in the
summer.
The school has also integrated sustainable principles into an
‘eco curriculum’ - making sure that building users are fully aware
of their own impact on the environment and the efficiency of the
building. For example, an easily accessible, school-wide software
interface allows pupils to monitor the various environmental
systems and help them to understand how energy has been generated,
how it is being stored, and how much has been exported to the
National Grid.
The new technologies and environmental design approaches
implemented at Howe Dell are a perfect example of how
sustainability and low carbon building design in UK school
construction is continuing to advance and innovate. It is also an
excellent example of how sustainable principles can perform an
integral role in children’s education.
The video
Awards
- ECO Green Flag accreditation (the highest level of award
granted by the UK’s eco-schools programme)
- Selected by BREEAM (the world's most widely used environmental
assessment method for buildings) as one of eight projects used
during the development of the BREEAM for Schools initiative
- Runner-up for Building Magazine sponsored Sustainable Building
of the Year 2008
- Highly commended in ACE Awards - Sustainable Technologies
category 2008