Epping Forest Wellness Centre: Building a healthier, stronger and more connected community
Ian Pratt, Scott Brownrigg & Colm Lacey, New City College

Located opposite New City College’s Epping Forest campus, Epping Forest Wellness Centre provides students and the local community with facilities for sport, fitness and wellbeing, and acts as a gateway to residential development and a new public park. Designed in collaboration with a range of key stakeholders, the compact design utilises mass timber construction to achieve a significantly reduced carbon footprint.

In this presentation, Colm Lacey and Ian Pratt will use the project as an example of how we can deliver high quality yet affordable, energy efficient and real-world learning environments to build healthier, stronger, and more connected communities.

Improving educational outcomes with the ten principles of 'Naturalness'
Jerry Tate, Tate & Co

As an architecture practice we specialize in projects which follow Regenerative Design principles, and this includes creating a connection with our natural world. There is gathering data to show that ‘naturalness’ in building design creates multiple benefits, including a potential 16% improvement in educational outcomes. This talk will define what ‘naturalness’ means in terms of daylight, ventilation, and access to nature and the outside;  as well as setting out ten principles to achieve this that can be applied to both new-builds and existing buildings. It will demonstrate that achieving ‘naturalness’ in your campus may be easier than you think.