Partner James McCosh will present a case study with TLET CEO James Higham about our creative retrofit and low-carbon journey at Houlton School
vHH Partner James McCosh will be presenting a case study with Transforming Lives Educational Trust CEO James Higham at the Education Estates Conference in Manchester in October this year.
It’s rare that a developer builds a state school. It’s even rarer to convert a listed building to make it. And it’s unheard of that they then add primary facilities to make a through-school. But that’s exactly what SUE GP LLP (a JV between Urban&Civic PLC and Aviva) are doing at Houlton, Rugby, working closely with the Transforming Lives Educational Trust.
Our talk aims to explore the lessons learned from our journey; of process and technique, about creative retrofit and low-carbon new build, of stakeholder participation, and the benefits to the Trust, staff and their pupils.
The existing 6FE secondary school campus was handed over in 2021, and involved the creative adaption of the Grade II former Rugby Radio Station and the construction of three new teaching blocks. It sits at the heart of the Houlton masterplan, which will ultimately provide up to 6,300 new homes. We are currently designing 3FE of primary facilities at the School, to create a ‘Through School’. Our brief aspires to provide excellent learning environments, accessible to all, and to deliver broad sustainability.
Learning from the secondary school project, which combined painstaking retrofit of the listed buildings, and exceptional comfort and energy use for the new buildings, our brief is to deliver the new primary buildings with Passivhaus certification. The team is also endeavouring to significantly reduce the embodied carbon of their construction, to ensure Houlton School achieves both excellent learning environments and holistic sustainability.
📍 Education Estates Conference, Manchester
💡 Houlton School: From Listed Building to Passivhaus: Great Learning Environments
🗓️ 14th October 2025 / 4-5pm
🎟️ Register to come and listen to the talk here: https://lnkd.in/epwWJvnG
vHH Partner James McCosh will be presenting a case study with Transforming Lives Educational Trust CEO James Higham at the Education Estates Conference in Manchester in October this year.
It’s rare that a developer builds a state school. It’s even rarer to convert a listed building to make it. And it’s unheard of that they then add primary facilities to make a through-school. But that’s exactly what SUE GP LLP (a JV between Urban&Civic PLC and Aviva) are doing at Houlton, Rugby, working closely with the Transforming Lives Educational Trust.
Our talk aims to explore the lessons learned from our journey; of process and technique, about creative retrofit and low-carbon new build, of stakeholder participation, and the benefits to the Trust, staff and their pupils.
The existing 6FE secondary school campus was handed over in 2021, and involved the creative adaption of the Grade II former Rugby Radio Station and the construction of three new teaching blocks. It sits at the heart of the Houlton masterplan, which will ultimately provide up to 6,300 new homes. We are currently designing 3FE of primary facilities at the School, to create a ‘Through School’. Our brief aspires to provide excellent learning environments, accessible to all, and to deliver broad sustainability.
Learning from the secondary school project, which combined painstaking retrofit of the listed buildings, and exceptional comfort and energy use for the new buildings, our brief is to deliver the new primary buildings with Passivhaus certification. The team is also endeavouring to significantly reduce the embodied carbon of their construction, to ensure Houlton School achieves both excellent learning environments and holistic sustainability.
📍 Education Estates Conference, Manchester
💡 Houlton School: From Listed Building to Passivhaus: Great Learning Environments
🗓️ 14th October 2025 / 4-5pm
🎟️ Register to come and listen to the talk here: https://lnkd.in/epwWJvnG