'SMART' Classrooms Up For Top Award
A project developing 'green' classrooms which could be put together in one day will compete for a prestigious regional business award this Thursday, 17 November.
The SMART-Pod building units, currently being developed, will be able to be assembled on any site in around 24 hours using pre-prepared parts. They will contain their own power, water and other services using environmentally friendly technology.
The project - led by the University of Derby in partnership with De Montfort University, and Derbyshire companies EKV Design and T4 Sustainability Ltd - is a finalist in the 'Open Collaboration' category of the 2011 Lord Stafford Awards. The annual Midlands awards celebrate the best collaborations between businesses and universities.
This year's award winners will be announced at a finalists' dinner on Thursday night, 17 November at the University of Birmingham's Great Hall.
As well as providing schools with extra classroom space that could be moved to different locations at short notice it's thought the SMART-Pod design could easily be adapted for use by businesses, the military and for natural disaster relief efforts. Units could be linked together or grouped on one level, or even stacked to meet the need for more room, and would be re-usable and recyclable.
The units would provide their own electricity to run lights and computers through environmental technologies such as photovoltaic (solar energy) panels and wind turbines, use highly insulated building materials to reduce heat loss, and could provide some of their own water supply through rainwater capture and treatment.
Jonathan Naden is Managing Director of EKV Design, based at the University of Derby's Enterprise Centre in Derby.
He said: "Not only will SMART-Pods be easy to assemble and to move, they would significantly reduce an organisation's building costs and the amount of polluting emissions produced."
Dr Boris Ceranic, the project's Lead Researcher and University of Derby Programme Leader for Architectural Courses, added: "This is a very exciting project with a lot of potential.
"We're delighted the SMART-Pod has been nominated for the prestigious Lord Stafford Awards, as it's an excellent example of what business and higher education can accomplish together. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed for Thursday's announcement."
The SMART-Pod development project was funded by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) and the European Regional Development Fund
(ERDF), through a Collaborative Research and Development Grant managed by the Sustainable Construction iNet initiative.
EKV Design and the University of Derby are also involved in a separate joint research project called Retro-Tek, which seeks to make empty homes more habitable and attractive through the use of new environmental technologies.
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