John Taylor Free School
Services (8)
Sectors
Location
Rugeley, United Kingdom
Client
ENGIE
Equans
Department for Education (DfE)
Architect
Glancy Nicholls Architects
John Taylor Free School is a low carbon school built on the site of a former power station and sitting at the heart of a new sustainable community re-development. The school will accommodate over 1,400 pupils, a nursery, and sports facilities including a community 3G pitch with floodlighting.
The project has been designed to the DfE’s sustainability design guide, which outlines how schools should be designed to align with the UK’s zero carbon trajectory. This requires designs to achieve stringent energy in-use targets, combined with maximising renewable energy generation on-site.
Peter Hazzard, Associate Director, commented, "The design utilises an innovative heat recovery system of very low temperature heating pipework embedded in the concrete slab (TABS). By linking this to an air-source and heat scavenging heat pump system the overall energy input required for heating and hot water production is reduced to very low levels."
The site contained numerous challenges, including the buried concrete bases for the old cooling towers and a substantial buried services corridor.