A new Catholic Primary School for 530 students on a greenfield site to replace and relocate an existing school within the municipality. It was recently awarded the 2008 Winner Sustainability Schools Project Award of Excellence. The Learning Areas have been grouped as junior, middle and senior year levels to suit the particular pedagogy of the St Macartan's Community, and each cluster has been orientated to achieve maximum benefit of the site microclimatic conditions. The juxta positioning of the buildings provides for an integration of the indoor learning areas with the external landscape and ecological habitat corridors which wander through the interstices. Overland swales, planted with indigenous grasses, allow the site surface drainage flows to be retarded and directed as visual elements within the landscape towards a series of wetland retention areas. These become a natural habitat for the local fauna ………….., thus enhancing awareness of ecological values within the student body. Pedestrian timber bridges intersperse these dry creek beds and wetland tributaries to provide circulation and interconnection throughout the site. The building designs incorporate passive energy controls such as external weather blades which shield the points of entry /egress to the buildings and control the solar gain to glazed areas. The building roof and wall fabric has enhanced insulation to achieve an R4 rating in the roof and R3 in the walls. To assist natural internal airflow ventilation, the architecture provides ceilings which slope upwards from external wall perimeters to a higher strata which gathers the

heated air and dispels it through controlled louvred panels. This Venturi action of air flow is controlled through an electronic Building Management System which automatically opens these high level louvres during the night under a thermostatic control to thus purge the building of daily heat build up. In the instance of wet weather developing during the period that these louvres are open, then a rain sensor operation automatically closes them to prevent water ingress. Water discharge from roofs is collected in a series of above ground water tanks, and this water is re-used for toilet flushing and garden irrigation. A 5kW photovoltaic cell with room for expansion has been installed. The energy generated feeds into the electricity grid and has an interactive display monitor for educational purposes. All of these ESD principles and equipment are obvious to the inhabitants of this complex, and assist in awareness of living within the constraints of our natural world without the use of energy-sapping air conditioning. A full thermal modelling of these buildings was undertaken by the consultancy group and educational sessions led by the architectural team with the staff to ensure an understanding by the future inhabitants of the anticipated thermal and human comfort ambience to be expected. All material used throughout the construction is recyclable and has been selected for its ESD appropriateness, ensuring low embodied energy used in supply, manufacturing and fabrication. The occupants intend to spend the first year learning to “sail” the building with adjustments made as needed.