Wilkinson Primary School

Location: Wolverhampton, West Midlands
Completion Status: February 2014	Occupancy: Occupied January 2014
Architect: Architype	Consultant: Engineer: Price and Myers, M&E: E3 Consulting Engineers, Other: Elemental Solutions, Certifier: WARM
Contractor: Thomas Vale Structural	Client: Wolverhampton City Council
Certification: April 2015	Certifier: WARM
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Large Projects WINNER: UK Passivhaus Awards 2015. A 2nd generation Passivhaus Primary that takes the brief beyond necessary requirements. The design addresses future needs of a 21st century learning environment with various innovations to improve performance & sustainability. 

Architype’s successful history of delivering schools for Wolverhampton City Council led to a repeat commission to replace an existing school that had fallen victim to an arson attack in 2010.

Previously Architype had persuaded the client to adopt the Passivhaus standard on Oak Meadow and Bushbury Hill Primary Schools (the 1st Passivhaus schools in the UK). Following the success of these schools, the client demanded Passivhaus for Wilkinson Primary. The client’s full support and understanding of the standard has truly enhanced the possibilities of the design and building performance.

Aside from designing a building that would perform excellently, and offer the school a sustainable future, designing a building that would help bring this community back together following the devastation of the fire was a key objective. 

The building has been rationalised with Key Stage 1 and nursery on the ground floor and Key Stage 2 on the first floor, with shared hall facilities and external soft play areas. The inclusive design focuses on a central ‘hub’ space, allowing for flexibility and accommodating a range of learning techniques; focused learning, quiet break out and messy play.

A number of other design environmental considerations have been implemented into the design of Wilkinson, to improve the overall site performance and the building’s environmental impact.

 

Wilkinson primary is Architype’s second generation Passivhaus School, and as a consequence benefits from the hindsight of previous projects, including a number of innovations and improvements. Completed in February 2014, our full time researcher has been monitoring the occupied school for over a year and the results so far indicate a success beyond initial predictions. Soon to be released publically, we hope for the data from the monitoring of the school can be disseminated to the industry as lessons learnt for continuous improvement within the standard.

 

Further Information

 

Architype

UK Passivhaus Awards 2015 Presentation

AJ120 Sustainable Practice of the year

 

 

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