Design leads environmentally friendly education for Hertfordshire pupils

2016-07-22T11:49:00-04:00

Howe Dell Primary in Hatfield could well be the UK’s most eco-friendly school. It has toilets that flush using rainwater, sedum roofs made of plants and vegetation, and classroom sink-tops made from recycled yoghurt pots. But the school’s design doesn’t just help protect the environment, it also uses nature to improve children’s academic performance and behaviour.

Howe Dell Primary’s £10 million, eco-friendly design is used by teachers to promote sustainability to a new generation of pupils. Capita Architects were given free reign to push the limits of sustainable design in the project, which was funded by the council, and that was exactly what they did. The school features solar panels, a wind turbine, and a heating system that uses a series of pipes just below the surface of the school playground for passive gain that is then utilised to heat the school.

This groundbreaking design was awarded ECO Green Flag accreditation (the highest level awarded to sustainable schools in the UK) and places pupils in close proximity to nature. To this end, the design’s wetland area and sedum roofs are used to study birds and the school places sustainability at the core of the curriculum. This learning is even extended to the playground where learning stations allow pupils to examine the habitats of micro-beasts. In this way, the whole building is understoo...

MASS Design Group to propose "Bauhaus of Africa" at U.N. Summit

2015-09-24T18:59:00-04:00

On September 27th, the MASS Design Group will officially present their idea for a Bauhaus-type school for Sub-Saharan Africa at the United Nations Solutions Summit. The proposed program would be based in Kigali, Rwanda and would purposefully "incubate local innovation towards tackling the biggest building boom of the next quarter century" according to a press release issued by MASS.

This building boom refers to the estimated addition of one billion Africans over the next two decades, while the project's name refers to the infamous 20th century Bauhaus school, which encouraged not only theory, but actual practice, resulting in a widespread adoption of modernism. This practice element will be crucial in a nation which will require massive amounts of new (and hopefully, artfully designed) infrastructure.

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Design leads environmentally friendly education for Hertfordshire pupils

MASS Design Group to propose "Bauhaus of Africa" at U.N. Summit