WHO'S WHO

Let's meet the consultants in the design team

Dick is the Project Structural Engineer

His job is to make sure the school stands up, and doesn't fall over in high winds or under the weight of snow or lots of rain and more importantly that it will hold up the weight of the planted roof!
Dick and his colleagues (that's his structural engineering friends) Richard and Simon have to do lots of sums to work out how many beams and columns we need and also how big they need to be.

Their calculations filled 3 big books!

Did you realise you needs hundreds and hundreds of things to make just the structural bit (structural steel frame) that holds the building up? Over 3000 bits are needed and these are held together by over 20 000 bolts and other fixings. Dick also like biscuits to give him energy for the long 11 mile bike ride home! Morta likes biscuits too and tried to sneak a bite while Dick wasn't looking!

Richard does lots of sums to make sure everything is OK. He has a big book that has diagrams and big sums in it and as well as doing sums in his head he has to do his big sums with a calculator as they can be very hard.

Somtimes it can be a bit of a puzzle!

Chris is the Mechanical Engineer

He deals with the heating of the school and the ventilation (that's fresh air to you and me).

The new school will have underfloor heating. Long hosepipes under the floor will carry hot water that has come from the 'ground source heat pump' that gets the heat from under the park (we told you about that earlier). This means it warms up your cold feet when you have walked to school and it dries your wet shoes. It's also great to lay on and read a book, it's really cosy.

In the summer if it gets hot the heating can run backwards and instead of putting heat into the school it can take it away and put it back under the ground in the park!

Chris also makes sure there is enough fresh air inside the school so areas like the kitchen and the toilets have fans to suck out hot smelly air and bring in clean fresh air. In other places you have to remember to open the windows and in the atrium there are some windows right at the top that will open on their own on hot days to let out the hot air and help keep the school cool.

Andy is the Electrical Engineer

His job is to make sure that all the things that run on electricity have some and that they are connected in the right way and it is all safe.

Andy has to do diagrams (they're drawings with symbols on) that show all the electrical things and where they go.

This includes things like the lights, sockets (the things you put the plugs in), data (that's the special wiring so the computers can talk to each other) as well as all the special things that give warnings/alarms like for fire or security and the pumps and controls that run the heating system.

There are miles of cables inside the new school!!! You probably won't see any of them are they are all hidden behind the ceilings.

Paul is the Drainage Engineer
What is this all about then? Well, Paul's job is to make sure that all waste water from the school is dealt with properly and taken away if required.

If he didn't do that then the new school would sit in a big puddle of rainwater (very muddy) and all the water from the toilets wouln't go anywhere (very smelly).

So, Paul makes sure all the water is collected in pipes and that they are big enough to work properly and not get blocked. The pipes from the toilets and sinks all join up in 'manholes' and then go to the 'sewer' (big pipe), in the road that goes to the sewerage treatment works where all the bits are removed and it is made clean before being allowed to go out into the river.

The new school is designed to save water with toilets flushed by rainwater collected from the roof and play terraces. There is a waterless urinal (a special toilet for just having a wee) for the men, all the taps have a spray outlet to use less water and they close off automatically so you can't leave them running and there are waterbutts on each terrace to water the plants that will be grown by each of the classes.