St Luke's elementary school by Architype is the first BREEAM Excellent Primary School in Britain

Architype, an architectural practice based in London and Hereford, designed this primary school for 450 children in the town of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.
Despite the large number of students, the construction, prefabricated on 2 levels and made entirely of timber, has all the warmth and charm of a welcoming place.

This is achieved with skilful use of materials, preferring warm materials like wood, the true key to the composition, bright colours and plenty of natural light. 
The school’s internal layout is a very important factor, giving up the classic school corridor in favour of a layout that promotes communication and interaction among the children with central common areas and classrooms arranged around them opening onto the schoolyard. This layout expresses the school’s teaching method focusing on sharing as a key principle.
The common areas, referred to as “hubs”, including the library and the cafeteria, are decorated in a way that encourages the children to interact. 

The building has won important awards such as the RIBA Sorrell Schools Award 2010 and the BCSE Sustainable School of the Year 2010 award. The school earned these awards and BREEAM certification for its ecologically efficient construction solutions, such as its compact geometry and prefabricated carbon-neutral structure insulated with a transpiring sheath of recycled newspaper and triple-glazed windows.

The untreated Douglas fir from British forests, the paints and the interior finishes are all natural. The school is heated with biomass (woodchips) with an underfloor heating system, while the ventilation system is controlled by a building management system.

The result is a brightly lit, cosy school building with a healthy interior in which children are happy to spend the day.
Design: Architype, http://www.architype.co.uk 
Location: Wolverhampton, UK
Photographs: Leigh Simpson

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