Education

EDUCATION THE IMPORTANCE OF HEALTHY DESIGN FOR SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES

Steve Richmond, Head of Marketing and Technical at REHAU Building Solutions, discusses the importance of creating schools and universities that are ‘healthy by design’, to both fall in line with net-zero targets and uphold student performance and wellbeing.

The intrinsic link between the quality of educational buildings and the academic performance of the students who occupy them has been increasingly recognised in recent years. As long ago as 2002, The Guardian reported on a study which found that “the quality of school buildings can help or hinder learning and teaching”, with lighting, space, furnishings and equipment all weighing in on student attitudes and behaviours.

Buildings and learning: 20 years on

Given this connection, it is important to assess how attitudes to school and university design may have shifted and developed in the past 20 years, particularly given the ever-growing importance of environmental commitments. In order to successfully reach net zero by 2050, reducing carbon emissions for the built environment is now a cornerstone of the green transition, with this priority weighing in on all aspects of building design going forwards.

As such, REHAU recently conducted a number of reports – the Designing Healthy series – spanning education, apartments, hotels and healthcare. Within the reports, REHAU surveyed 520 M&E designers and architects, 25% of which worked primarily with schools and universities.

The headline finding here makes for compelling reading. A staggering 97% of respondents said that leaving high-quality buildings for future generations was a medium-to-high priority. However, in direct contrast with this, 77% believed that wellbeing is being ‘value-engineered’ out of a building’s original design, with cost-cutting measures now beginning to encroach on healthy design principles.

These shifting priorities are currently being compounded by a number of burgeoning market challenges. Primarily, the UK’s higher education student population is expected to grow between 12.3% between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 academic years. Despite this, the National Audit Office estimates that around 60% of current academic building stock was built before 1976. As such, there is a clear need to construct new schools and universities that are ‘healthy by design’.

Ventilation and thermal comfort

The Oslo Manifesto, a 2017 report by the Royal Institute of British Architects, is the landmark piece of research concerning the impact of building design on student and teacher wellbeing. It concluded that good design can support better learning outcomes for students, increase teachers’ productivity, and even make schools more cost effective to run.

It also ascertained the main factors that bear an influence on occupant performance – namely, ventilation, natural light, acoustics, thermal comfort and temperature control. Guidance on these factors is detailed in the Government’s Building Bulletin 101, which was updated in 2018 to recognise how extreme thermal conditions can affect learning.

For new structures replacing old, existing building stock, the solution may lie in thermally-activated building structures (TABS) that offer a means of regulating indoor temperatures beyond traditional HVAC systems. This technology uses the building’s concrete thermal mass as a buffer for changing temperature demands, running hot or cold water through slabs to heat or cool as appropriate.

This ensures the removal of any cold draughts, and crucially allows temperature change to take place gradually over a 24-hour period. This is opposed to inefficiently blast heating or chilling the space, which can invite the risk of humidity, in turn promoting the growth of dangerous mould.

However, options also need to be identified that can be implemented into current educational facilities. In this

sense, older buildings may instead benefit through retrofitting a smart control system, such as REHAU’s NEA SMART 2.0. When coupled with underfloor heating, this offers a more efficient approach to heat distribution, heating the space evenly for maximum comfort and using around 15% less fuel than radiators.

This system synergises well with low-carbon technologies, such as water, ground and air source heat pumps, providing an avenue through which the education sector may decarbonise its building stock. Underfloor heating systems are virtually silent during operation, offer no burn risks, and reduce unnecessary air movement for allergy sufferers.

A case for district heating systems

Alongside ensuring occupant wellbeing, sustainability is the other vital element of healthy building design. For this reason, it is vital that schools and universities are equipped with futureproof low-carbon technologies that will help minimise environmental impact for years to come.

One of the more popular developments that meets this criteria is district heating, wherein heat and hot water is provided via an underground pre-insulated pipe network to a number of buildings via a singular heat source, resulting in more optimised energy usage.

This technology has been supported by a number of recent Government schemes, such as the £288m Green Heat Network Fund and £338m Heat Network Transformation Programme, indicating the key role that it is set to play in the green transition. This has also been recognised by those surveyed by REHAU, with 60% of respondents working in education believing that demand for this technology will rise in the next five years.

At present, most heat networks are third generation, using gas combined heat and power (CHP) to circulate water at 70 to 95°C. However, the latest fourth-generation networks use lower flow temperatures of 40 to 60°C, facilitating a significant reduction in both carbon emissions and heat loss.

Despite the position of steel as the current industrystandard material for district heating pipework, it should be noted that fourthgeneration networks are best suited to polymer solutions, such as REHAU’s RAUVITHERM and RAUTHERMEX.

PE-Xa pipework is far quicker to install thanks to its reliable compression sleeve jointing system, with no need to weld pipework together – this is a crucial consideration, given that ease of install is a key priority for sustainable installation projects. The bonded-foam structure also ensures that there is no need to compensate for thermal expansion. Moreover, recent research from REHAU indicates that due to the lightweight nature of polymer pipework, opting for PE-Xa solutions over steel can deliver a 67% saving on carbon emissions during transport. Resultantly, contractors can benefit from lower embodied emissions for each project undertaken.

Final thoughts

Design for schools and universities is currently at a juncture. While occupant wellbeing has long been a primary consideration during the construction of new buildings, sustainability now weighs in heavily on the agenda, in the face of ever-growing pressures to decarbonise the built environment in line with net-zero targets. By making informed choices and specifying products that cater to both of these needs, contractors and M&E designers working in this sector can continue to create buildings that are ‘healthy by design’.  www.rehau.com/uk-en