Ysgol Hafod Lon: Penrhyndeudraeth

Wynne Construction was appointed by Gwynedd Council to build the brand-new school for pupils with special educational needs from the Meirionnydd and Dwyfor areas of the county.

With an overall cost of £13 million, the new facility located in Penrhyndeudraeth provides modern and well equipped classrooms, a hydrotherapy pool, therapy rooms, sensory equipment, suitable outdoor areas for play and learning and a garden and cafÉ where the older children can develop entrepreneurial skills. The project also included a six-bed residential unit, allowing pupils to stay for long or short periods of time, giving their families much needed respite. This important provision will mean that far fewer children will have to go outside Gwynedd to receive elements of their care and education.

The school was constructed to BREEAM Excellent standards. BREEAM sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation and has become one of the most comprehensive and widely recognised measures of a building's environmental performance.

A BREEAM assessment uses recognised measures of performance, which are set against established benchmarks, to evaluate a building's specification, design, construction and use. The measures used represent a broad range of categories and criteria from energy to ecology. They include aspects related to energy and water use, the internal environment (health and well-being), pollution, transport, materials, waste, ecology and management processes.

This project adopted several approaches to achieving the score of Excellent and to construct a very energy efficient building, including: fabric first approach (low U values), BIOMASS heating systems, rainwater harvesting, low water demand sanitary installations and sedum green roofing system.