Corby Business Academy, a £23 million secondary school specialising in business and enterprise, houses a diverse mix of business board rooms, classrooms, hydrotherapy pool, performance theatre and restaurant on two floors, enclosed within self-contained atrium hubs that maximise natural light and ventilation and reduce energy consumption.
A total of thirty-three Windcatchers were installed to serve every internal classroom, teaching space and meeting room on the first floor of the building. This means that almost 50% of the educational space is served by the innovative Monodraught natural ventilation systems.
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To enable the Academy to control the natural ventilation systems, Monodraught provided four automatic temperature control panels to cover the 34 zones within the building’s first floor, allowing the Windcatcher systems to be linked to the building’s overall building management system.
The Academy, which has been singled out for its good leadership and management, opened for the new school year in September 2008 and was officially opened by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in February 2009. More than a thousand pupils aged 11-16 and 250 sixth-formers are being taught in this iconic setting, created by Foster + Partners.
The brief for the building included a number of very specific requirements dictated by the Academy, which places great emphasis on the welfare of its students. Important factors influencing the specification of the building included: as much natural ventilation as possible; a very tight carbon footprint; and a proviso that the natural ventilation units should have minimal visual impact on the building. Since the Architects did not want to see any trunking or obstruction on the ceiling where the Windcatcher ventilation grilles terminated, the volume control dampers had to be located above roof level with an access panel, in order to produce a clean ceiling line.
The layout of the building was a major influence in the specification for the Monodraught natural ventilation systems, as Foster + Partners Associate Graeme Laughlan explains:
“The ground floor rooms were to be mechanically ventilated, but the Academy wanted the first floor rooms to be naturally ventilated. However, as the envelope of the building was minimal and the faculties’ classrooms, science laboratories, meeting rooms etc., have glazed walls looking into the atrium to maximise daylight, we could not use any of the internal vertical surfaces to introduce natural ventilation. We needed to find another way to bring fresh air by natural ventilation into the first floor, and decided to use Monodraught Windcatchers systems, since they were able to provide natural ventilation from a sustainable source, namely the wind, and they could easily be installed through the roof slabs on the first floor.”
Describing the functionality and benefits, Monodraught vice chairman Professor Terry Payne says ‘top down’ ventilation using Windcatchers has proved to be one of the most reliable and popular forms of natural ventilation and a viable alternative to energy-hungry air conditioning. Windcatchers encapsulate the wind from any direction and use the natural wind movement to introduce clean, fresh air taken from above roof level. The prevailing wind pressure pushes a fresh air supply through the Windcatcher system down into the building below. This tends to slightly pressurise the space forcing out warmer stale air, which rises naturally to ceiling level and out through the leeward side of the roof mounted Windcatcher. Natural buoyancy also plays an important part since warm air will always rise to ceiling level. Being linked to temperature sensors, the Monodraught volume control dampers in the ceiling regulate both the incoming air supply as well as controlling the exit.
Summing up for Foster + Partners, head of design Spencer de Grey says: “In designing Corby Business Academy we addressed the learning needs of a wide range of students and sought to create an inspirational place in which to teach and learn. The building also employs highly innovative strategies – including the Monodraught Windcatchers on the roof – to improve its energy efficiency and ensure its sustainability over time.”
