Project Overview

The latest in a new generation of Shropshire schools has been unveiled following our completion of this project to provide more sustainable education facilities in the county.

The carbon neutral building for Harlescott Junior School uses innovative construction methods to create significant energy saving measures. It was commissioned by Shropshire Council and supports the council’s aim to reduce its emissions to zero by 2030. The net zero carbon facilities that we designed and built was shortlisted for the Sustainability Award at the Insider West Midlands Property Awards 2022.

The scheme has allowed the Haughmond Federation to consolidate its infant and primary provision onto one site and included two nursery classrooms, four reception classrooms, eight classrooms for Key Stage 1, four classrooms for Key Stage 2, a pupil support hub, hall, kitchen, offices and meeting rooms. The existing Victorian school building was also renovated to make it more energy efficient.

The timber frame building, sourced from Lowfield Timber Frames on the Shropshire/Welsh border, benefits from low U-values due to the sustainable building methods used and will achieve a BREEAM rating of Very Good. It also runs on renewable energy via an air source heat pump and has an array of solar panels to provide electricity.

The project has not only produced a sustainable building for the future, but the local focus of the build process also reduced the carbon footprint. The £9.1 million project took 15 months to complete, with 82 per cent of the budget spent within 20 miles of the site. In all, 300 people worked on the project, with almost 80 per cent of them travelling less than 15 miles to get there.