WORKSHOP Leaders: Benjamin Gill (Environmentalist, BioRegional, UK). With the assistance of Dr. Elias Messinas (Architect, ECOAMA, Greece/ Israel).
WORKSHOP Team: Eleni Axamidou, Eirini Irakleitsa-Gaia Barmpero, Contantina Bizeli, Maria Gkonou, Despoina Kouinoglou, Angeliki Kresteniti, Maria Lykantidou, Avraam Papadopoulos, Galini Parcharidou, Eleni Patroni, Evgainia Spyridonos, Danai Toursoglou – Papalexandridou, Aglaia Tsiga, and Konstantinos Zoumas.
Happy Green School & Community 6th High School, Papanastasiou & Omirou Street, Thessaloniki
The school is located in a densely built area characterized by the lack of open spaces and green areas. Further, the school was located adjacent to the Historical Record of Macedonia, most probably built on the former yard of the historic building. The team identified severe problems of lighting, ventilation, insulation, water drainage, noise and capacity. For example, the main meeting place for students is the yard, but it consists of extremely limited green areas, without enough seating areas and inadequate space for movement of the students, let alone sports activity.
The purpose of the project was to transform this school into a passive, ‘green’ building with zero emissions, which functions under the basic principles of reusing materials and recycling, in order to benefit the local community, providing adequate facilities to the students and teachers and integrating nature into the yard. The team dealt with the question: ‘how can the school affect people to communicate and trust each other, have the freedom to move, act and create in cooperation with nature and the environment?’ In order to transform the school building into a passive structure, an energy efficiency upgrade is necessary. Insulation was needed to increase thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption for heating and cooling. Further, the team suggested the installation of photovoltaic panels on the roof, providing a small income to the school when energy is sold to the grid. To increase daylight, the openings are widened and fluorescent lighting is placed in the classes. Skylights on the roof increase both daylight and natural ventilation. The team proposed to redirect the gutters of the roofs to a water tank with a capacity of 12,000 liters. The rainwater collected could be used for flushing and to water the plants. Finally, in order to improve the microclimate of the school and yard, and to encourage student access to a natural setting, the team designed a green roof on top of each of the three classroom buildings.
The redesign of the school courtyard posed the following question: ‘could a small fenced area with hard materials be functional, yet still evoke contact with nature and generate creative learning?’ The team proposed new seating areas built with natural materials (cob), utilizing existing sitting areas and creating new green areas. On the edges of the yard, the team proposed planting aromatic and medicinal plants to encourage bringing the students in contact with native and exotic species, and to promote biodiversity, the team suggested the ‘Corner of Biodiversity’ on a wall, hosting fauna nests (insects and birds).
Finally, the group investigated potential changes to the area, aiming to generate a model ‘green’ neighborhood which could also affect other neighboring areas in the city. For example, by increasing pedestrian paths, planting new trees, creating recycling corners for the neighborhood residents, and introducing organic waste composting in the residential backyards.
If you liked this post, find more here: http://ecoweek.netfirms.com/ecoweekconference.org/ecoweek.co.il/files/2012/files/graphics/ecoweek2012_workshops_catalogue.pdf