Old Newton School Classroom

Background & Brief

Old Newton Primary School is situated 3 miles North of Stowmarket in a rural setting close to St Mary’s Parish Church, in the village of Old Newton, Suffolk. Originally built in 1859, the school was extended in 1999 and 2008 and comprises a collection of buildings with capacity for 105 pupils.​

In 2023 the school secured funding to create a new self-contained classroom and library in an underused area overlooking the playground. A prefabricated volumetric solution was initially considered, but rejected on the grounds of limited design options, questions of longevity and potential air quality issues arising from mostly petrochemical derived internal finish materials. In 2024 the school governors approached IF_DO Architects and Natural Building Systems to propose an off-site manufactured solution using regenerative, natural materials. ​

Central to the school’s ambition was the need for a flexible teaching space with a seating area overlooking the playground, and excellent indoor air quality, free from VOC’s and other contaminants. Moreover, the new classroom would need to be delivered and built rapidly, with disruptive operations occurring only during school holidays.​

Design Development & Delivery

IF_DO developed a concept design with support from Natural Building Systems using mostly standard ADEPT® components. Following early consideration of a suspended deck, a conventional ground bearing slab was specified to address ground conditions. The project was tendered and let in January 2024 under a Design and Build contract to local builders, Mixbrow Construction, with NBS nominated to design and supply the superstructure elements (including SE design).​

Following an award of funding from the Digital Innovation Fund NBS engaged Circuland to provide Digital Material Passports and LCA support.​

Ground works commenced in September 2024 with the NBS components delivered in October. Mixbrow completed the project in December 2024​

The data so far…

The Old Newton School Project was closely monitored throughout the build and during its subsequent use. The accumulated dats is used to create a document called a Whole Life Carbon Assessment and requires a relatively long period of time to complete. The data collected so far has been analysed by our team an looks promising. Here is a quick preview:

Energy Use Intensity or EUI measures a building’s annual energy consumption relative to its size, expressed as energy per square metre per year. kWh/m2/yr

Based on the November to January energy monitoring data, the ONS building has an EUI of 50.13 kWh/m2/yr (against a predicted 65.01kWh/m2/yr) so is consuming 23% less energy than its designed performance. In terms of emissions that’s 280.00 kgCO2e pa. (Kilogrammes of CO2 emitted per year).\

Upfront embodied fossil carbon (A1-A5) is 274.15kgCO2e/m2, which is roughly 60-70% lower than a typical “business as usual” classroom built with conventional methods and materials and better than the LETI 2030 Band A target (which is <300kgCO2e/m2 for education).

Upfront embodied fossil carbon (Modules A1-A5) refers to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the raw material extraction, transportation, manufacturing, and construction of a building, all of which occur before the building is occupied.

LETI 2030 Band A target The London Energy Transformation Initiative 2030 Band A targets represent a set of stringent, industry-led benchmarks designed to ensure all new buildings in the UK operate at Net Zero Carbon by 2030.

In terms of whole life carbon (over a 60-year lifespan) the total fossil carbon impact is exceptionally low (27.78tCO2e). When factoring in Stage D benefits, the net impact is just 12.09 tonnes of CO2 over 60 years, or 178.5 kgCO2e/m2.

Stage D benefits take into account the ability to recycle or re-use elements of the building once it has reached the end of its life