Melton Vale Sixth Form College (MV16)

Project Information

Overview

MV16 is a new school catering for Post-16 students in the Melton Mowbray area. The site lies on an elevated plateau off the A6, south of Melton Mowbray. DSA were involved from the outset and, working with the client and design team, introduced the idea that the whole school landscape should be usable for teaching and learning. The building location was adjusted to enable an almost totally ‘above ground’ Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS)/Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) solution. A planning condition requiring a Landscape Management Plan (LMP) for the site was imposed.

We know that there are very few British landscape projects that are visited by parties of Danish designers. This is one! DSA, A+G Architects and ARUP worked together closely on the design of the ‘water sensitive landscape’ of this new sixth form college to ensure the school grounds were easily useable for teaching. In this respect it’s a very unusual example of students learning about the environment by working in it – monitoring their evolving landscape and changing management
practices according to their findings.

An innovative ‘SuDS’ solution utilising rainwater harvesting, vegetated swales and a wetland basin, deals with surface water.  The basin being rich in wildlife and accessible by the children to be used as an exciting learning resource. Forest Way features as a CIRIA Susdrain case study.

A swale system carries water from hard surfaces via ‘nested wetlands’ to a main detention basin. The swales include filter strips that provide pre-treatment, thus creating two treatment-train components.   Runoff from roof areas is directed to a rainwater harvesting tank prior to discharge into the main basin.   MV16 allowed us to learn a great deal about how SuDS may be installed in an educational environment.

MV16 is a CIRIA Susdrain case study.