Colston’s School wins Building Excellence Award

Colston’s School has received a Bristol City Council Building Excellence Award for Best Educational Building.

	Mortlake

It recognised the achievement of refurbishing Mortlake, a 1960s boarding facility, into a state-of-the-art humanities centre with classrooms for Humanities (History, Geography and RS) and an extensive Art department.

The £720,000 project was on time, within budget and less than half the cost of new build.

	Key members of the Mortlake project team at the Bristol LABC Awards where Colston’s School received an Excellence Award for Best Educational Building. Pictured left to right are Kurt Hudson (Principal of surveyors Hudson Associates), Alan Meakin (Colston’s Facilities Manager), Mike Godfrey and Maurice Brown (representing building contractors K P Wilton & Son Ltd).

The Bristol Local Authority Building Control (LABC) judges scored Mortlake highly for its green features, following a complete energy efficiency makeover.

On the roof are solar panels which provide heat for the building’s hot water system. The panels are contributing an average of 65% of the heat required over the year.

In addition Mortlake now has double glazed windows with low emissivity coated glass to help keep the building cool in the summer and warm in the winter, high frequency low energy light fittings which automatically switch off when no-one is in the area, complete wall and ceiling insulation and the latest high efficiency modular condensing boilers for central heating and hot water back-up.

The judges also praised the building’s comprehensive disabled access facilities.

Alan Meakin was joined at the Building Excellence Awards by Kurt Hudson, Principal of surveyors Hudson Associates who acted as construction, design and management co-ordinators and contract administrators. The building contractors, K P Wilton & Son Ltd of Bristol, were represented by Maurice Brown and Mike Godfrey.

	Alan Meakin and Kurt Hudson returned to school with the winning certificate. They are pictured outside Mortlake.

“We thought long and hard about achieving best value,” said Alan. “To demolish Mortlake and replace it with a brand new building would have been over £1.6 million, and we decided to take a more innovative approach.

“The revised budget for the refurbishment, including all furniture and fittings, was £762,000, and we managed to come inside that by around £60,000.

“We are on a green drive at Colston’s and take our carbon reduction commitment most seriously.

“We were determined to minimise the hidden energy costs associated with demolition and new build. The refurbishment model has saved hundreds of lorry journeys to take away rubble and bring in new materials.

“We already purchase all our electricity from a renewables supplier, and the energy efficiency measures built into the Mortlake project have enabled us to make a reduction in electricity consumption. This has already become a blueprint for the next stage of our refurbishment programme.”

Steve Pearce, Bristol City Council Area Building Control Manager, added: “The energy savings and sustainability designed into Mortlake were most important in winning this award.

	Key to the energy savings being achieved in the refurbished Mortlake are these solar panels on the roof which heat the building’s water supply.

“We acknowledge the potential benefit of refurbishment over rebuild. This in itself could potentially achieve significant energy savings, including transportation of materials to and from the school.

”Colston’s should be congratulated on this approach, and we would share their ambition to continue to redevelop the school further reduce its carbon footprint"

As a winner, the Colston’s project is automatically entered into regional awards due to be held later in the year.