An out-dated secondary school is being replaced with a brand-new development including a swimming pool and multi-use games area (MUGA) to be made available for community use. Funding for the redevelopment has come from the Department for Educations £1 billion School Rebuilding Programme which has identified a number of schools across the UK as being outdated and in need of replacement. The three-storey, new facility will include state-of-the-art classrooms, science labs, dining space and main hall alongside the swimming pool and MUGA.

As part of the first tranche of zero carbon in operation facilities being delivered in line with the Department for Education’s sustainability specification there was an acute focus on ensuring the building was designed for both current and future generations, with adaption measures in place to respond to the effects of climate change. Several innovative renewable technologies including air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps and photovoltaics have been implemented and we carried out TM54 calculations in order to determine the predicted energy use of the building.

The inclusion of a swimming pool within the academy brought with it several design challenges not least being the significant impact the pool would have on the energy profile of the building, to manage this we effectively split the TM54 calculation into two parts, one for the school and one for the pool.