Two recent developments have scored highly in the Welsh BREEAM awards. The College Ystrad Mynach was named best project in the Further Education category while the Rodney Parade ‘City Vizion’ Phase 1 Development in Newport was the overall winner in the ECO Homes section. The new build for The College Ystrad Mynach in Caerphilly is a four-storey teaching block that includes general classrooms, computing rooms, learning support, a hair salon, a learning resource centre and a new refectory with kitchen facilities. It is being constructed within the footprint of the building being replaced. The aim is to build a new, high quality facility that meets the facility's ever increasing aspirations. It will provide much needed expansion space for the College, which continues to grow in response to the needs of the local area. Construction of the building is due to be finished in August 2010.

The project achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating with an overall score of 72.52%. The key environmental features of the building include:

- Biomass boiler

- Vegetated roof

- Rainwater recycling

- Natural ventilation

- Use of low environmental impact materials, such as in the laminated timber frame structure.

The building scored well across all BREEAM categories, achieving 100% in the Water category and 80% in the Health & Wellbeing and Land Use & Ecology categories.

“By including the latest energy saving devices and sustainable processes, BREEAM will enable the College to reduce running costs while providing a comfortable environment for both learners and staff,” added Steve Davies, Estate Manager at The College Ystrad Mynach.

“This also promotes an interest in sustainability, which is becoming more and more a part of the curriculum.”


Rodney Parade Phase 1 is a residential development of 51 high quality dwellings in Newport, South Wales. It is a mix of 15 one and 36 two bedroom flats, spread over three blocks. This development is part of a major regeneration project in Newport known as City Vizion.

The project achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating with an overall score of 72.6%. The key environmental features of the development include:

- efficient building fabric

- low NOx boilers

- responsibly sourced timber

- actions to increase the ecological value of the site

- located in an area with good public transport links and local amenities.

The BREEAM Awards Wales recognise and reward those involved in the design and construction of the highest scoring buildings certified under BREEAM within the principality. A BREEAM Excellent rating is a pre-qualification, so the winners truly represent the top examples of sustainable design. The awards are not subjective as each development has been independently assessed and certified. In order to win an award, each building must have excelled in every environmental category within BREEAM (eg from Energy to Ecology) and therefore winners represent a holistic approach to delivering environmental sustainability.

AECOM, a provider of professional technical and management support services was appointed BREEAM assessor by developer BNP Paribas for work on the College and by Taylor Wimpey on Rodney Parade. “We were delighted to work with both of the design teams on these two groundbreaking projects,” said sustainability consultant Fiona Williams. “This collaborative approach ensured the designs would meet the sustainability targets required to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating whilst taking into account such factors as viability, affordability and future environmental benefit.”