Wales Institute Sustainable Education Roof Terrace

The Wales Institute for Sustainable Education (WISE) is an educational building located at the

Centre for Alternative Technology The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) ( cy, Canolfan y Dechnoleg Amgen) is an eco-centre in Powys, mid-Wales, dedicated to demonstrating and teaching sustainable development. CAT, despite its name, no longer concentrates its efforts exclu ...

near

Machynlleth Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a popul ...

Powys Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It was designed as a case study for

sustainable architecture Sustainable architecture is architecture that seeks to minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings through improved efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, development space and the ecosystem at large. Sustainable ...

and

green building Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planni ...

and has won several awards.

Design and construction

The building was designed by architects Pat Borer and David Lea and inaugurated in June 2010. It contains a 200-seat lecture theatre, offices, teaching rooms and 24 en-suite bedrooms. WISE was designed to demonstrate the use of

ecological building {{Unsourced, date=July 2021 Ecological Building is both a design process and the structure that is a result of such a design process. The ecological building design process is a modern architecture variant of permaculture design. An ecological ...

principles such as

passive solar building design In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unli ...

and

heat recovery ventilation Heat recovery ventilation (HRV), also known as mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR), is an energy recovery ventilation system which works between two air sources at different temperatures. Heat recovery is a method which is used to reduce ...

and uses building materials which have a low

embodied energy Embodied energy is the sum of all the energy required to produce any goods or services, considered as if that energy was incorporated or 'embodied' in the product itself. The concept can be useful in determining the effectiveness of energy-produ ...

. The main materials used in constructing the building were

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

and

rammed earth Rammed earth is a technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method. ...

. The external walls of the building are made from 500mm thick

hempcrete Hempcrete or hemplime is biocomposite material, a mixture of hemp hurds ( shives) and lime, sand, or pozzolans, which is used as a material for construction and insulation. It is marketed under names like Hempcrete, Canobiote, Canosmose, Isochan ...

, and the 7.2m high walls of the lecture theatre consist of 320t of

. A building management system is used to monitor a wide variety of parameters inside the building, providing data for research projects by CAT's sustainable architecture students.

Use

The building is used for teaching a wide variety of short courses, and postgraduate university degrees through the Centre for Alternative Technology's ''Graduate School for the Environment'', including

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

level courses in

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

and

. The centre has run a Professional Diploma in

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

course in ''Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies'', since 2008, which allows students to obtain an accredited Part II architectural qualification.''Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), Machynlleth, Wales; Professional Diploma in Architecture Part II: Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies''
The Architects' Journal, December 2010. Retrieved 2011-11-13.

Awards

In 2010, the WISE building was awarded the first place in the

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

's list of ''Top 10 Buildings 2010'' and came 4th in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

's ''Top 10'' list of buildings for 2010. The building also won a

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

(RIBA) Award in 2011 and was highly commended by the judges for the gold medal for Architecture at the 2011

National Eisteddfod of Wales The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Eur ...

References

External links

WISE webpage
{{coord, 52, 37, 20.86, N, 3, 50, 29.55, W, region:GB, display=title Buildings and structures in Powys Sustainable buildings in the United Kingdom Rammed earth buildings and structures University and college buildings in Wales Buildings and structures completed in 2010