SANDAL MAGNA

PRIMARY SCHOOL
(Wakefield)

ADVANCED SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

SUBMITTED BY:
Aishwarya Shewale
Manasi Musale
 ABOUT: SURROUNDINGS:
Location: Wakefield
Area: 1740 sq.m.
Architects: Sarah Wigglesworth Architects,
London.
Capacity: 210
Age Group: 5-11
Structural Engineers: Techniker Ltd, London.
Construction Value: £5.25M
Client: Wakefield Council
Completion: 2010

LOCATION PLAN

SITE PLAN 3D

• The school serves as a replica of the neighbourhood around Sandal, giving local kids a
somewhere to call home where they can care for, learn from, and belong. It transforms well-
known sites into an inspiring stage set for learning and play, complete with town hall, bell tower,
library, nursery, and allotments.
• Children’s imaginations can run wild in the quiet backstreets that connect Sandal’s red brick
terraces. The school’s layout mimics this link with “streets for kids” by providing readily
supervised outdoor spaces where all classes and age groups can participate in playtime’s
commotion.

Source: https://www.swarch.co.uk/work/sandal-magna-primary-school/

NEIGHBOURHOOD
PLANNING:
• The plan derives its narrative structure from
the historic context of the area and the street
typology of “fronts” and “backs” found in the
rows of terraced housing for coal miners.
• As internal streets lined with ancillary
support spaces like an IT area, library,
Quiet back lanes between houses used for play Lanes between school buildings
group rooms, etc. that visually animate the
backstreet to the main playground through
their articulated timber facades that change
in treatment and rhythm in accordance with
the internal programme, classrooms are
designed as the house’s “fronts,” opening
directly on to external learning areas.
• Three parallel single-story wings that reflect
the neighborhood's pattern of terraced
homes and back streets are the school's
layout, which takes inspiration from the local
surroundings.

SITE PLAN
• Sarah Wigglesworth Architects designed this
school in Wakefield, England, using red bricks “Hardly a day goes by without a new revelation from this exciting building: All the effort has
and industrial building shapes that reflect the produced a learning environment that has achieved and surpassed our wants and needs”
surrounding vernacular. -Julia Simpson, Headteacher
• The school uses a lot of the red brick from
those terraces as well. At the centre of the
campus, the school is topped by a striking
new bell tower that is symbolic of the huge
chimneys of Wakefield’s industrial past.
• Along the teaching block, strong ventilation
stacks mimic the rooflines of nearby
residences.
• Sandal Magna is able to lower its energy
requirements because to our passive design
strategies, using 70% less energy than the
average primary school.

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
 VISIBLE GANTRY NATURAL NORTH DAYLIGHT

• Sandal Magna desired a visionary educational facility that promotes outdoor learning and environmentally friendly practises. By converting the
entire structure into a teaching tool, our design encourages daily awareness of sustainability.
• The classrooms are oriented north to reduce overheating, and red brick chimneys, which are common in the neighbourhood, employ the breeze to
pull in fresh air and push out stale air. The school is heated by a solar-powered borehole heat pump, and rainwater is collected to flush toilets and
water the green roof. The interior workings of the school are on display for the delight and curiosity of the kids. The ceilings are a lattice of glittering
sprinkler channels and spongy acoustic cushions so that young minds can see how things join together and work. Rainwater harvesting pipes are
transparent so that recycling can be seen.
• A ground source heat pump that provides heating, hot water, and cooling, 100 square metres of photovoltaic solar panels to power the heat pump,
a masonry structure that provides thermal mass throughout the classrooms, reuse of reclaimed bricks from the old school in retaining walls and
garden features, and a set of student allotments on school property are just a few of the school’s sustainability features.

SUSTAINABLE FEATURES