Skelton Grange’s building is purpose-built to support our education and training programs, providing both child-friendly facilities such as a large open-plan classroom and colourful decoration and also office spaces and tool store areas.
There’s more to it than you might see at first glance though.
Throughout the building there are many features that help us to minimise our use of resources such as electricity and water. The most visible features are the large areas of wall and ceiling windows, which mean we very rarely need to turn on the lights, and the push button taps so water is never left running. And of course the wind turbine you can see behind the building. Most of the magic (as always) goes on behind the scenes:
Heat is kept inside with extensive insulation, and special double glazing filled with the gas argon.
Heating is all under-floor, and our water is heated with energy from the sun (a solar water heater on the roof) and from under the ground (using a ground-source heat pump).
The water used to flush our toilets is in fact rainwater, collected from water that falls on the roof.
Many of the construction materials used for the building were chosen for their lower environmental impact, such as the use of dried grass in our insulation and our non-PVC flooring, and much of the building can be recycled when it reaches the end of its life.
We are very grateful for the building having been funded by Big Lottery Fund, National Grid, Biffaward, Green Leeds, Clear Skies and Yorkshire Water.
Our building was designed by LEDA (Leeds Environmental Design Associates) and was awarded a commendation in the Civic Trust Awards 2006.