Ashmount Primary School

New London Architecture awards 2011 – commendation

2015 Royal Institute of British Architects Awards

The vision for the Ashmount Primary School at Crouch Hill Community Park is for an exemplary, Zero Carbon in-use, high quality learning and recreational environment to be created on a neglected piece of Metropolitan Open Land in North London.
The development provides spaces for childcare, children’s and young people’s services and community use all set within an ecologically rich, safe and accessible community park. New buildings are provided for Ashmount Primary School and Bowlers Nursery and an electrical substation is remodelled and extended to house a new energy centre, youth club and ecology
centre. The development, when completed later this year, will be Carbon-Negative in-use with BREEAM Outstanding rating for the school.
Extensive engagement with all stakeholders, from those listed above, to Islington Borough Council Energy Team, Islington Housing, community and environmental groups - including wildlife trusts - and Local and Greater London Authorities has been fundamental in creating this exemplary sustainable community and infrastructure project for London.

The building has achieved a BREEAM ‘outstanding’ rating with a score of 90.49%.

Key Strategies

Site Issues:
- Site designated Metropolitan Open Land and of Special Ecological Significance, within the St Paul’s viewing corridor.
- Brownfield site containing a collection of derelict buildings and structures, a nursery and a youth centre housed in an old electricity substation.

Key Moves:
- Single access road moved to southern boundary to remove vehicles from centre of the site, improve pedestrian routes and sightlines, and create a heart to the park.
- New buildings have been positioned so as to enhance perception of public realm while creating designated play areas for school and youth centre.
- New buildings have been orientated in such a way as to strike the optimal balance between maximising daylighting, minimising solar gain, privacy and views.

Transports:
- No parking allowed on site other than for disabled and service vehicles.
- Bike racks provided in park; showers and lockers provided in primary school.
- No parking allowed on site for contractors and subcontractors during construction.

Energy Efficiency:
- Gas CHP network delivers heat and power to the buildings and park lighting. Excess heat is exported off site to adjoining Islington owned blocks of flats (currently heated by very inefficient old gas boilers). During winter, a biomass boiler provides top-up heating.
- Buildings designed to be low energy and low carbon (115 KWh/m2/yr and 35 KgCO2/m2/yr).
- Use of low-energy lighting systems and electrical goods.
- Solar glazing and solar shading tailored to particular orientation of elevation.
- High levels of insulation.

Water conservation:
- Ecoplay WC cisterns are used in the school to collect greywater from showers and wash hand basins in the toilets. This is then used for flushing toilets.
- Rainwater collected from the roofs and used for irrigation.
- Use of brown roofs to reduce rainwater run off.

Building materials:
- In-situ concrete frame and precast concrete planks provide large spans, thermal mass and help future-proof building against climate change.
- ‘Omnicore’ precast concrete floors contain polystyrene to create depth while minimising use of concrete.
- Minimum 30% total recycled content used in construction materials.
- All timber FSC specified.
- Low VOC materials specified.

Indoor Environmental Quality:
- All habitable spaces in the new school building are naturally ventilated.
- All classrooms use the ‘e-stack’ low energy ventilation system which provides heat recovery in winter and safe night-time cooling. Controls monitor and respond to CO2 and temperature levels.
- High levels of daylighting achieved throughout the building.

Operations and Maintenance:
- Easy-to-use building controls.
- Use of Soft-Landings programme during construction and for three years post-completion.
- Extensive discussions with school, nursery and youth centre on types of controls and energy management of buildings.

Waste reduction:
- Contractor committed to minimum 90% site waste being reused or recycled.

Biodiversity:
- The site is an area of Significant Ecological Importance, with protected wildlife habitats, ecological diversity and a rare topography for London.
- Landscape design has been carefully considered to protect the existing ecology along the Parkland Walk, enhancing it where possible, and creating a new, biodiverse ecology where it has degraded.
- Use of brown roofs encourage biodiversity and reduce rainwater runoff.
- Use of bat and bird boxes incorporated into the external elevations.
- Location of new school, ecology centre and youth centre in this enhanced woodland park will help raise awareness of issues around ecology and sustainability