Pupils at the Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Liverpool.
Image © markrwilliamson.com
Image 1 of 10
The Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Liverpool.
Image © markrwilliamson.com
Image 2 of 10
The Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Liverpool.
Image 3 of 10
The Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Liverpool.
Image 4 of 10
The Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Liverpool.
Image 5 of 10
Pupils at Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Liverpool.
Image © markrwilliamson.com
Image 6 of 10
Sports Hall at Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Liverpool.
Image 7 of 10
Library at Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Liverpool.
Image 8 of 10
Skylight at Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Liverpool.
Image 9 of 10
The Academy of St Francis of Assisi, Liverpool.
Image 10 of 10
The facts
Client: DfES / Diocese &
Archdiocese of Liverpool
Location: Liverpool (North West
England)
Services: Architecture
Sector: Education
Contract Type: Traditional
Project Value: £16.8m
Start/Completion: 2002 - 2006
The project
The Academy of St Francis Assisi,
designed by our architecture division, Capita Architecture, has
been hailed as the world’s first 'eco school'.
Since opening in 2006, the school has quickly
become a template for the delivery of a new wave of schools and
academies that not only adhere to the most stringent environmental
principles, but which also have a huge impact on educational
achievement.
Situated on a former brownfield site in one of
Liverpool’s most deprived areas, the school features a raft of
sustainable measures including its east-west orientation, which
maximises solar benefits and enables natural light to penetrate
into the heart of the school, ‘living’ sedum roofs and rainwater
harvesting.
While preparing an outline strategy for the
project, the school’s board of governors consulted extensively with
the WWF’s (World Wildlife Fund) head of formal education. Capita
Architecture’s final brief for the project therefore stressed the
need for a landmark building that championed best practice in
environmental design and offered itself as an educational resource
wherever possible.
As Britain’s first Academy for 11-to-16 year
olds to specialise in the environment, the ‘green’ theme runs
through all aspects of the school’s education provision. For
example, display panels show pupils how much electricity is being
generated at any one time and how much carbon dioxide has been
saved since the school was built. Further electronic displays in
the central café area detail the outputs from the banks of solar
cells that help heat the school, as well as the rainwater
harvesting system which supplies much of the school’s ‘grey’
water.
The effect on the pupils’ education has been
marked. Within months of opening the school had actually topped the
Government’s league tables as the secondary school that has done
the most to improve its pupils’ education between 11 and 16. An
impressive achievement, but extraordinary when you consider that
its predecessor - Our Lady’s Catholic High - saw just 2% of its
pupils passing their GCSEs over a decade ago.
Many UK schools, with their drab, lifeless
design, lose the chance to inspire pupils and teachers even before
the school gates have even opened. The Academy of St Francis of
Assisi, however, demonstrates that principles of environmentally
sustainable design can provide new opportunities to engage with
students and teachers, sparking a lifelong passion for
learning.
Awards
- CABE (Commission for Architecture and the
Built Environment) Festive Five Award winner 2007
- Highly Commended, Sustainable City Awards,
Sustainable Building 2007
- Runner Up, Sustainable Building of the Year,
Building Magazine Sustainability Awards 2006
- Highly Commended, City of London
Corporation’s Sustainable City Awards 2007
- Chosen as a case study by the Flemish
Government which is planning its own major schools building
programme