Case study Sustainable Student Village

A sustainable student village at the University of Bradford is a unique, eco-friendly development of student residential accommodation that pushes the boundaries of design and build construction.

Designed by GWP architecture, the £40 million project is rated with a BREEAM score of 95.05%, making it the first residential building in the UK and one of only 15 buildings worldwide to attain the ‘Outstanding’ rating.

Only building products of the highest environmental standards were used to meet the criteria for this rating and Forterra’s Milldale Grey Multi Dragfaced bricks were chosen for their BES 6001 Responsible Sourcing of Materials (RSM) accreditation, their naturally high thermal mass and product life in excess of 60 years.

Bricks, which were used in conjunction with a pre-fabricated panelised timber frame system, are well suited to the design of the buildings as they help to provide a highly insulated, airtight envelope minimising the need for additional heating.

Forterra’s light-textured Milldale grey clay bricks with their sandy and mottled tone, compliment the large light grey and vivid green panels that make up the buildings’ façade and provide the perfect backdrop to highlight the dark charcoal framed windows, complete with decorative green shutters.

The dragfaced texture of the bricks also provides a natural, weathered appearance that is in-keeping with the development’s natural surrounds, including gardens, vegetation, vegetable plots and a pond to attract wildlife.

‘The Green’ offers 1,026 student bedrooms across a range of townhouses and cluster flats and is located within a few minutes’ walk of Bradford’s city centre.

Completed in just 84 weeks and opened to students at the start of the 2011-12 academic year, this ground-breaking student living facility demonstrates that the highest levels of sustainability can be achieved through appropriate design and construction processes.

Its other features include a combined heat and power unit to reduce CO2 emissions, solar thermal roof panels as a renewable energy source and rainwater harvesting to cut water use.