Green School in Prishtina, Kosovo

August 16, 2010 Category: Education, Public Buildings

Located in Prishtina, Kosovo, Green School was designed by URBAN PLUS. This project is a joint effort of a multidisciplinary team to design a building that can operate in harmony with the natural environment. There are four green objectives intended to achieve: decrease the energy consumption, create an education polygon on sustainable buildings and renewable energy, promote a healthy learning environment, and develop a pilot project that could be replicated in the future.

The concept of the building is generated based on the principles of green architecture—respecting users and the environment. The two storey entrance atrium provides a feeling of space and light and the staircase clearly indicates the circulation to the learning facilities. Ground floor classrooms are directly connected to the garden and can be adapted as an open space air classrooms. In order to minimise solar gain in the late spring and summer, south-facing classrooms have been provided with external shading—lighting shelves which also serve to improve daylighting of the classroom.

The entrance façade creates a welcoming appearance using natural materials, wood on the front and the brick in the entrance. The corridors are illuminated through the glazed façade. The toplight in the upper floor corridors, are used both as a lighting method which reduces the need for artificial lighting and to provide natural ventilation of the whole school. The energy solutions include the use of geothermal energy based on four modules: 1. Floor/wall/ ceiling heating and cooling, 2. Control system for heating/cooling, 3. Heat pump and 4. Solar panels for sanitary hot water.

The BMS module provides the control of energy consumption for lighting, heating and cooling. The overall calculated energy savings could be up to 40%. Rain water harvesting from the green roof and the courtyard through a filtering system will provide water for the toilet flushing and irrigation of the courtyard. Solar pannels and the plants on the roof, which also serve for lerning purposes.

Green School Design Architechture Plan 1