Sandal Magna School | Sarah Wigglesworth Architects

Sandal Magna Community Primary School replaced a rundown Victorian primary school in Wakefield, and is one of the most carbon efficient schools in the UK. The school’s contemporary design evokes the local architecture of neighbouring red brick terraces and chimneys. Different materials combine to provide texture and interest, and create an extremely tactile building which is also a teaching tool for demonstrating ecological design. A constructed version of the BSF Exemplar design, this school was designed as a passive environmental building using thermal mass provided by its exposed brick walls. The remaining structure was solid timber. Ventilation is drawn through classrooms by wind towers. A grant from the Department for Education allowed us to install a ground source heat pump driven by roof-mounted pv panels. Predicted to be one of the lowest carbon schools in the UK, we are currently seeking funding to carry out Post Occupancy Evaluation (PoE) as it is known that performance often lags behind calculations.