March 11, 2022 10:57am
The Portsmouth Academy, has been awarded a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating for its new building extension, making it one of the most sustainable new buildings in Portsmouth.
BREEAM is the world’s leading sustainability assessment method for master-planning projects, infrastructure and buildings and gave The Portsmouth Academy an Excellent rating for its newly constructed building.
Rachel Grey, Principal at The Portsmouth Academy, said:
“We are thrilled to have been awarded an Excellent rating by BREEAM for our brand new building. We are passionate about ensuring the best for our pupils and this building embodies that – by both providing modern facilities to offer our young people amazing spaces to learn and be inspired and creating a sustainable building that will help to build awareness of the importance of safeguarding our planet for future generations.
I would like to say a huge thank you to our wonderful team of people who helped make this a reality over the last six years including Portsmouth City Council and W. Stirland Ltd and to the BREEAM Assessors who reviewed the building and spoke with us in-depth about the work we do here.
We are looking forward to our pupils utilising these new facilities in the coming days and weeks.”
The extension features a PV (solar) system on the roof, high levels of thermal insulation, good air quality and the building is completely powered by electricity. The construction process was also sustainably managed with a significant reduction in waste.
The building was praised for its excellent levels of daylighting in all classrooms and its acoustic performance quality. The external building was also sustainably designed, encouraging biodiversity with a range of native planting and bat boxes.
The new building is now home to a brand new state-of-the-art drama studio and a recording studio and will be used for house music, creating a high-tech centre for the arts at the Academy. The building also contains new humanities classrooms and art classrooms, with its very own kiln for firing pottery. This will enhance the learning experience for pupils across the Academy, providing high-quality education and fantastic learning facilities.
Stuart Gardner, CEO of Thinking Schools Academy Trust, added:
“At TSAT we believe in improving the life chances of all our children and young people. This Excellent building sustainability rating shows how fantastically The Portsmouth Academy is doing this by providing high-quality education, in high-quality facilities, while helping to future proof for the next generation. Many thanks to all involved and we look forward to sharing this experience and knowledge with our academies across the Trust.”
The BREEAM Assessors for the project commended the Academy for its vision and thanked staff for their commitment to building sustainably and achieving an Excellent rating.