Manchester College of Arts and Technology

Manchester College of Arts and Technology have incorporated visionary design and building innovation in their North Manchester Sixth Form Centre and Library in the Harpurhey area of the city. The project demonstrates the potential of solar technology as a truly building integrated material and how it can help to reduce a building's year-round energy demand. 

The south facade of the building is clad in a striking monolithic array of solar PV modules. Taking advantage of the building's flat roof, rows of PV modules crown the building providing further clean energy. The new library roof also incorporates solar thermal technologies. A total of 482 80W polycrystalline modules are used in the cladding design with a further 178 165W modules providing the roof top power system.

The creation of a "cladding void" helps to regulate the internal temperatures of the building by minimising solar gain in the summer and, secondly, by encouraging a 'thermal stack effect' which helps to draw air through the building spaces. This helps to minimising the year-round energy demand of the development, to keep the PV modules operating at their highest efficiency and so maximises the contribution of the PV to the building's energy requirements. This application therefore minimises the building's overall energy demand to further reduce overhead energy costs.

The project won the RIBA/LSC award for Further Education Design Excellence Award 2006.