BREEAM awards its highest-ever score
The highest-ever BREEAM score has been awarded to a £40 million student village on the University of Bradford campus. It has achieved a sustainability score of 95.05%. The Green is one of only 15 buildings in the world to achieve BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ out of over a million buildings assessed by this scheme since it was launched in 1990. This interim rating will be checked after three months to ensure the high standards have been maintained.
The development was designed by GWP Architecture and constructed by GB Building Solutions in a joint venture with Balfour Beatty Engineering Services.
This student village has 1026 bedrooms in 4-storey townhouses and 6- and 7-storey apartments. The BREEAM rating has been made possible through meticulous planning of the design and construction methods.
The highly efficient building envelope minimises the need for space heating. The largest heating load is for hot water, which is provided by solar thermal energy supplemented by CHP.
Interactive displays enable students to understand how much energy and water they are using and compare their energy use against neighbours in real time. A team of green ambassadors will teach fellow residents how to live in the most sustainable way possible, and those that are careful with their energy use will get a rebate on their bills. By empowering students in this way, behaviour patterns will be altered, providing significant reductions in the use of energy and water throughout the life of the building.
The Green forms part of the university’s strategy to create a leading sustainable campus and is part of its multi-award-winning Ecoversity programme.
