Sustainable Buildings

In 2018, we embarked on a building programme to transform our site. While aware of the environmental impact of any major building project, we collaborated with our architects Gort Scott to build in an environmentally conscious way.

The new Pavilion and Anniversary buildings are designed to ensure energy efficiency, with very low emissions from heat and power. The buildings’ form and fabric help to control their internal climate. In the Anniversary Building, the size of the windows and the depth of their reveals regulate daylight and sunlight penetration. The precast concrete fins of the Pavilion shade the windows from sunlight around midday and in the early afternoon.

The exposed concrete structure of the Anniversary Building and our natural ventilation strategy mean that the building avoids overheating without the use of mechanical cooling systems. The concrete has a high thermal mass, allowing energy to be slowly absorbed or released, stabilising temperatures throughout the day.

A standalone Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system reduces carbon emissions compared to a conventional boiler by generating electricity onsite with a gas engine and using the waste heat from this process to provide hot water.

St Hilda's is committed to reducing the carbon emissions from its buildings and has recently commissioned a QODA report into the impact of sites. A subsequent strategy, outlining how to bring the College to net zero, is available here.