Footprint

Max Fordham Partnership recently won New Build Project of the Year for Studio E’s City Academy, Hackney, at the CIBSE Low Carbon Performance Awards 2010.

The school welcomed its first intake of students in September 2009. Although the building boasts 130 photovoltaic panels and a ground source heat pump (GSHP), the greatest energy savings are achieved through passive design using a central atrium to maximise natural ventilation and daylight.

The corridor atria brings light into the heart of the building and allows the academy to achieve an average daylight factor of 7.5% on the third floor; 4.3% on the second floor and 3.9% on the first floor.

Artificial lighting within the building is controlled by sensors that dim the light in accordance with available daylight and turn off lighting when occupancy is not detected.

The Academy uses a combination of a double façade and attenuated ventilation openings to provide high levels of natural ventilation while limiting noise break-in to the teaching spaces.

Inside the Academy a cross ventilation strategy uses acoustically attenuated openings that allow air to circulate from classrooms into the central circulation space. Here buoyancy drives warm air up through the atrium and out through large ventilation openings at the top of the building.

The onsite energy sources were part funded by a grant from the Low Carbon Buildings Programme. The GSHP will provide 75 per cent of the energy needed to heat the academy and the photovoltaic panels will produce 16,000 kWh of electricity per year.

The City Academy has been assessed and certified with an A-rated Energy Performance Certificate and a Very Good (63.83%) BREEAM rating.

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