Whitesales’ rooflights help enhance educational experience

Whitesales has supplied 14 Solus Monopitch rooflights and four Solus smoke hatches for a new state-of-the-art Additional Support Needs school (ASN) in East Dunbartonshire.

Architects NORR Group designed the new state-of-the-art Woodland View School to provide a richly enhanced educational experience for 200 children and young people aged from 3 to 18. Acknowledging the proven benefits of daylight to pupils’ learning and wellbeing, they wanted to use rooflights as well as fenestration to create flexible, light-filled, spaces. 

With some of the rooflights spanning 15m, the challenge for Whitesales was to design and supply durable, cost effective and energy efficient rooflights and deliver a smooth, hassle free installation.

The team worked closely with main contractors McLaughlin & Harvey on the design and specification. Ranging in length from 4000mm to 15000mm, the 14 Solus Monopitch rooflights have been sited above the many break out learning spaces and extra wide corridors in the school, bringing daylight into the very heart of the building. They help to meet the requirements of BS EN17037 2018, which focuses on the physical and mental health benefits of daylight, as well as the energy savings that can come from minimising the requirement for artificial light.

Whitesales manufactured and installed the rooflights and four Solus smoke hatches in three phases as the build progressed, utilising a crane for the final installs to minimise time and disruption on site.  They were all fitted on upstands constructed on site by the contractors and all comply with BS EN6375, BS EN1026 and BS EN1027 to withstand even the toughest Scottish weather conditions.

The £34.9m Woodland View School was shortlisted for Project of the Year – Inclusive Design at the Learning Places Scotland Conference, partly on the basis of the light and space that the rooflights bring into the building.

At the opening of the school, East Dunbartonshire Council Leader Gordan Low was hugely positive: “I’m very proud that East Dunbartonshire Council has delivered this landmark project that will make such a difference to the lives of our young people and their families. We’ve worked with pupils, families and staff to create a place of learning and nurture that meets their very specific needs in a safe and welcoming environment.”

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