British School Featuring Kalwall Wins Prime Minister's Award
In an attempt to recapture the pride in public buildings of a century ago, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair created in 2000 the Better Public Building program. The initiative is the government's pledge to ensure the highest possible standards in design, construction, delivery and performance for public buildings and infrastructure projects.
Blair's office annually recognizes one particularly well-designed and executed project with its Better Public Building Award. This year's winner, City Learning Centre of Bristol, incorporates Kalwall translucent daylighting technology into a building design described by judges as "a practical, adaptable and delightful building that adds fun and motivation to school classroom learning for a minimum cost." They cited the scant 21 weeks from design to completion, the "excellent use of space," and called it "a superb example of a functional building meeting all the project's objectives."
A seaport since the turn of the previous millennium, Bristol is both ancient and avant garde. A city of 700,000, its maritime past forms a colorful backdrop to today's chic clubs and cafés. Actor Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach here in 1904. Not far from the edge of town stretches some of England's most beautiful countryside.
Within the neighborhoods of Monk' s Park and Brislington, however, exists another Bristol: one of kids from fractured families growing up on tough streets. "In Brislington especially, we're talking about difficult children," says Nigel Dyke, a director of the Alec French Partnership. The Bristol architecture firm actually designed two identical City Learning Centres (CLC), one for each neighborhood, as an adjunct to the existing schools. "It wasn't enough simply to build a top-shelf educational facility; with these students -- primarily 15- to 18-year-olds -- we had to make it look appealing so they'd be keen to go in."
The strategy worked. Within the Centres, instructors report that students' behavior is much better than in their traditional classrooms at the Monk's Park and Brislington secondary schools. The very design of the 3,000-square-foot buildings may account for this improvement. Each includes a series of learning spaces and a cyber café for socializing. Information technology plays an important role; not the teaching of it, but rather its use as a key to learning. City Learning Centres throughout Britain are available beyond normal school hours and augment students' educational experience by offering software and courses not normally available, information about careers, and strategies for integrating CLC work with that which is done in their schools.
"The Centres are designed to be clearly legible and understandable to visitors and users alike," adds Dyke. "Circulation is clear and all major spaces, on both the ground and first floors, open off a central staircase. The flexibility of the built spaces invites a wide variety of both school and community uses." The steel-frame buildings are designed also to be striking and innovative. The ground floor is clad in concrete block with insulated render finish, whereas the first floor uses some copper but is clad primarily in Kalwall translucent, insulating panels.
"Our client had seen Kalwall used elsewhere and desperately wanted it for the City Learning Centres," says Dyke. "Knowing how tight the five-month construction schedule would be, the Bristol City Council ordered the Kalwall even before a contractor was appointed!" Kalwall is prefabricated at its Manchester, New Hampshire, factory and shipped overseas in sealed containers. The panels arrive preassembled and ready for installation at the job site, a task made quick and easy by their lightweight properties.
"We, of course, had used it before," continues Dyke, "and knew its light-transmitting qualities would be ideal." Kalwall is the most effective system for diffusing natural daylight and redistributing it internally as calming, museum-quality light. It is particularly conducive to study as it eliminates distractions visible through traditional, clear glass windows. Because it eliminates shadows, hotspots and computer screen glare, Kalwall overcomes the need for blinds and curtains. The increased, controlled daylight saves money, too, by reducing the need for artificial lighting. When viewed from outside at night, the interior lights give the translucent panels the look of a glowing, ethereal skin.
According to a survey by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (an advocate for better buildings in the UK), 70% of English people believe well-designed schools improve children's education. Recognizing daylighting as a design element, this view is born out by research. Although City Learning Centres do not use traditional classrooms, many studies confirm natural daylight contributes to improved student health as well as test scores. For example, in schools with properly diffused natural light surveyed in 1998 by Heshong-Mahone, a Seattle, Washington, research group, students raised their test scores 20% in math and 26% in reading.
In addition to winning the Prime Minister's Better Public Buildings Award, City Learning Centres scored highly with the construction industry, too, winning the Bristol Civic Society Award and being shortlisted for a British Construction Industry Award in the "Small Project" (under $5 million) category. They were also finalists for the Royal Institute of British Architects Award. "We are very pleased with Kalwall," says Dyke, "and so is the Bristol City Council. There's no doubt in my mind that these City Learning Centres are having an impact upon the way other educational buildings in Bristol should be designed; Kalwall is an integral part of that new thinking."
City Learning Centres
Bristol, United KingdomArchitect: Alec French Partnership, Bristol, United Kingdom
Kalwall Specifications:
Light Transmission: 13%
Solar Factor: 0.17
U-Factor: .23 Btu/sq. ft./°F (1.29 W/m2k) by NFRC-100
Panel Color: Crystal, White
Trim Color: Aluminum
For more information, contact:
Bruce Keller
Kalwall Corporation
1-800-258-9777
