Templewood and Morgans Primary Schools, Hertfordshire
Templewood and Morgans Primary Schools, Hertfordshire
We carried out a strategic assessment of Hertfordshire’s extensive portfolio of post-war schools, using two examples as case studies to inform best options for thermal upgrade.
Templewood Primary School in Welwyn Garden City is listed Grade II* as one of the earliest large prefabricated school buildings in the country. It was constructed in 1950 with a steel frame and precast concrete panels, based on a system developed by Hills. The school was planned around the child’s experience and embraced its woodside setting, with extensive glazing.
Morgans Primary School in Hertford is listed Grade II* as one of the earliest large prefabricated school buildings in the country. Completed in 1949, it was the first school to use a mixture of prefabrication and individual design, an innovation that spread across the country in the following years.
The project brief was to improve the thermal performance of both school buildings. As part of this project a key question was how to upgrade the performance of the windows, while minimising any adverse impacts on the heritage significance of the listed building. As such, a key question for both projects was: what do the windows contribute to the significance of the listed building? We demonstrated that what was distinctive about the windows was the way that they are deployed and that the way that the windows contribute to the significance of the listed building can be summarised in terms of five key themes: placement, pattern, profile, materials and ironmongery.
Additionally, in order to inform Carbon Plans, we also analysed the potential improvements associated with different technical options in collaboration with Artelia. These options range from doing nothing, to adding secondary glazing, to wholesale replacement of the windows and glazed doors. Our conclusions were that secondary glazing would be effective in terms of performance improvements, for example reducing the U value from 5.7 to 2, while at the same time being quite benign in heritage terms. Secondary glazing goes a long way towards preserving external appearance. We argued that any effect on the internal character could be managed through careful detailing.
Client: Artelia