Langley Academy

Langley Academy

Slough, UK

Sustainability is at the heart of the Langley Academy, a 1,150 pupil school near Slough that caters for students aged from 11 to 18.

The academy embodies the passion and commitment that Buro Happold has for sustainable technologies, as well as providing an excellent learning resource for students.

Sustainable feature support science specialism such as 30% renewable energy generation onsite

20% water consumption and 150 tonnes of CO² saved per year

Interactive building systems contribute to pupils education

Challenge

Our brief for the design of Langley Academy was to make it as sustainable as possible, while aspiring to instil this philosophy into the mind-set of the stakeholders and wider community. The building also had to incorporate the Academy Trust’s vision for ‘Gallery Learning’ – open, transparent spaces that encourage interaction between the students, teachers and their studies.

Working closely with Foster + Partners, our design team combined a number of sustainable features, including rainwater harvesting, ground source heat pumps and a biomass boiler run on locally sourced woodchips, to achieve the client’s aspirations.

Neil Squibbs, Chief Executive Officer

Solution

These solutions have led to the site achieving 30% onsite renewable energy generation, while also saving 20% in water consumption and 150 tonnes of CO₂ a year – at the time of completion, these were the lowest emissions of any school in the Academy programme.

The gallery is created by the full height atrium that sits at the heart of the three storey building, which forms a meeting space for 1100 students. Monitors showing how the building systems are performing form features on the walls, allowing pupils to see how the energy is being used.

Value

At the Langley Academy the sustainable features educate the students. The level of sustainability created by our team serves as a highly visual and immediate feature of the surroundings, and an invaluable learning resource.

Not only do the students stand to benefit from the project, the building is also used extensively out of hours by people from all across the region. Therefore, helping to drive the sustainability message to the very heart of the community. The result is an environment that has swathes of natural light and plenty to occupy enquiring minds.