Abstract
Due to changing demographics, the UK faces a significant shortage of school places. The UK government aims to build large numbers of new schools to meet this demand. However, legally binding carbon emissions mitigation commitments might limit the ability of the government to adequately meet this demand on-time, on-budget, and within sustainability targets. This paper assesses the opportunity for prefabricated engineered timber construction methods to help meet the demand for new primary and secondary school buildings in the UK within these constraints. Building on a study of past government-led school building programmes and the state-of-the-art developments in engineered timber construction, this paper outlines the benefits that an engineered timber school building programme could have on a sustainability and procurement level. A strategy is then proposed for the wider adoption of engineered timber for the construction of school buildings in the UK, including detailed guidelines for designers and policymakers. The study concludes with recommendations for the adaptation of this strategy in different countries, depending on context-specific requirements, therefore promoting a generalised adoption of sustainable and efficient construction processes.
Highlights
This paper explores the potential for the use of engineered timber as a construction material for the delivery of government-procured prefabricated school buildings in the UK
Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) can make substantial contributions to the acceleration of the construction process. This is critical in the context of educational buildings, since the tight assembly processes linked to engineered timber construction can be accommodated within school holidays, minimising disruptions to the school programme, which remains in use throughout [48]
Such training could build on existing design expertise in engineered timber construction in the UK, and should include both design and engineering training, as well as any skills training required for fabricators, including the use of digital fabrication technologies
Summary
By 2024, the UK is anticipated to face a shortage of approximately 120,000 secondary school places. In 2016, the UK government committed to the delivery of 600,000 new school places by 2021 to address the rising number of pupils in the UK school system [1] This includes a target of the construction of 500 new free schools, in addition to the refurbishment of a further 500 schools, as part of a £23 billion investment. The construction of large numbers of new school buildings in the UK will result in significant greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental life-cycle impacts. Building the necessary new schools required to meet projected demand could pose significant challenges to meeting these goals and the UK’s legal obligations for greenhouse gas emission reductions.
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