Estover campus

Plymouth City Council, Kier Western and EC Harris have worked together to develop a £39 million, 120,000 square metre campus which has come about as a result of 'Building Schools for the Future' funding being made available to Plymouth City Council under the 'One School Pathfinder' initiative.

The intention is to provide an inspirational and integrated community and education complex (15,500 square metres), which incorporates the following organisations all of whom have been involved in the design of campus:

• Estover Community College
• Estover Primary School
• Secondary Special School
• Primary Special School
• Community Museum
• Community Library
• Estover Youth Centre
• Multi Agency Working Space
• Plym View Day Nursery
• Air Training Corps
• Plymouth Hospital School
• The Sound House Trust

The following facilities will be provided as part of the campus:

• 6000m2 flood lit astro turf
• Senior football pitch
• Senior rugby pitch
• Junior football pitch
• Grass running track
• Seven wicket cricket square
• Three court multi use games areas
• Four court sports hall
• A fully equipped gymnasium

The design by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios integrates the campus into its social setting and has taken into account the needs of the community through the findings of the local development framework, encouraging community access to provide a positive contribution to the area.

The campus will be a landmark building in a landscaped setting that incorporates the existing Soundhouse, Plymbridge Childrens' Centre and Nursery School into its daily life. The facility will be welcoming and secure and will allow everyone to work together from early years through to adult whilst serving the community with enriched facilities, approximately 17% of the buildings will be for community use with 54% of the campus grounds will also be available to the local community.

The building will provide flexibility in the short term and adaptability to meet changing educational and community needs in the long term. The campus will be constructed using robust materials both inside and outside which will be easy to maintain and will take advantage of modern building methods which will allow natural lighting throughout, be thermally efficient and sustainable in terms of its life cycle costing and its CO2 emissions.

The design of the new campus incorporates various key and innovative features aimed at minimising the impact to the environment whilst improving the internal environment for the buildings occupants. The school design and choice of materials allows the buildings temperature to be regulated naturally controlling overheating in the summer months by the application of night time ventilation.

The high mass materials used within the structure cool overnight resulting in slowing the rate of heat gain during the proceeding day. Conversely in the winter months these same high mass materials store heat radiated internally during the day and thus slow the rate of internal cooling over the night time period. The lighting controls within the new school will be light and occupancy sensitive so that lights are automatically dimmed or turned off depending on natural light levels and occupancy. Services such as gas, water and electricity will be installed with meters local to their point of use across the campus to assist in the monitoring and adjustment of building management and energy use.

This information will be fed into the campus ICT system and the science department in order for the pupils to study the sustainability of the building and building science. A biomass boiler is to be installed to supply the hot water requirements of the campus reducing the CO2 emissions and the impact to the environment. Biomass is normally considered a carbon neutral fuel, as the carbon dioxide emitted during burning has been (relatively) recently absorbed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis and no fossil fuel is involved. Photovoltaic panels are to be installed as part of the scheme to help provide some of the electricity requirements needed by the campus.

Key timescales as follows:

• Ecology works - completed
• Enabling works - commenced
• Contract - November 2008 (contractor as yet to be confirmed)
• Phase 1 start - November 2008
• Phase 1 complete - November 2009
• Phase 2 start - January 2010
• Phase 2 complete - November 2010
• Phase 3 start - January 2011
• Phase 3 complete - February 2012

Documents

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	Possible drawing of Estover campus - a drawing showing how the new Estover campus could look in the future. File format JPEG (jpg) - 248KB
	Estover campus site plan - a drawing showing the layout of the new Estover campus site. File format JPEG (jpg) - 97.5KB
	Possible drawing of Estover campus inner courtyard - drawing showing how the inner courtyard will provide external shelter, open space and circulation routes as well as a mixture of hard, soft and habitat areas at the new Estover campus. File format JPEG (jpg) - 67.5KB
	Possible drawing of Estover campus dining room - a drawing showing how the open plan dining room with adjoining kitchen has been designed to take account of the governments aims to increase the number of pupils eating school meals. The open plan dining spaces provide internal and external dining spaces alongside mezzanine areas all of which are at the front of the college and will be easily accessible by students from all the schools. The food technology spaces will also be accessed off the dining rooms. File format JPEG (jpg) - 50.9KB
	Possible drawing of Estover campus courtyard - a drawing showing how the campus courtyard provides the link to all facilities and the above picture shows the multi use space at the heart of the campus with external play, teaching and activity spaces which include an auditorium and a performance area. File format JPEG (jpg) - 29.2B
	BREEAM report for Estover campus - Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) report providing information on what is happening to the energy parts of the design. File format Adobe acrobat (pdf) - 225.3KB

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