Monodraught natural ventilation serves new Jewish school
The natural-ventilation strategy for the JCoSS Jewish Community Secondary School in Barnet is based on Monodraught Solar-boost systems. A clever system of double stacking on the three 2-storey wings enables each unit to serve classrooms on each floor, which are located one above the other.
The school has places for 900 pupils in year groups seven to 11 and a further 360 students in its sixth form. The school also includes the Pears Specialist Resource Unit for 15 children aged 11 to 19 with autistic spectrum conditions.
In plan the school building resembles a hand, with its teaching wings radiating like fingers towards the playing fields to capture views and optimise available daylight. The building was specifically designed to bring natural ventilation and daylight to the teaching wings.
The need was to comply with the ventilation requirements of PPE and the temperature requirements of BB93 and BB101, as well as meeting an acoustic requirement that fanlights could not open during the day in Spring, Autumn and Winter as the classrooms face a railway line.
Consequently, the Windcatcher systems are acoustically lined to control noise from the railway line and eliminate crosstalk between classrooms caused by the double-stacking arrangement on the roof.
There is also a 3-storey wing accommodating the sports, music, textiles and arts areas. Windcatcher Sola-boost systems provide natural ventilation to the top floor. Monodraught Sunpipes are also used in this wing to replace bespoke ‘lanterns’ that had been designed to incorporate glazing and ventilation elements..
A total of 39 Windcatcher Sola-boost systems have been installed and three Classic systems. Two Sunpipe Diamond Dome natural daylight systems were installed in each top-floor classroom of the 3-storey block. All the Windcatcher systems are integrated into the building-management system.
