Willmott Dixon is celebrating the completion of Wales’ first carbon neutral school building.

The £1.5 million Learning Plaza at Castle Park Primary School in Caldicot will provide flexible, technologically rich, multi-functional space, enabling staff and pupils to enjoy a unique form of personalised learning.

Designed and constructed to use innovative sustainable techniques, the Learning Plaza uses straw bales grown in local farm fields to create construction panels known as ModCell, used for the external walls of the building to deliver excellent thermal efficiencies.

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Willmott Dixon has worked in partnership with Monmouthshire's 21st Century Schools Team and Property Services on the design, build and unveiling of the Learning Plaza in Monmouthshire.

Adrian Brewer, Regional Director of Willmott Dixon in Wales, said: "This has been a particularly special project to be involved with, not only because it is the first of its kind in Wales, but also because of the pioneering construction methods we were able to implement throughout."

The Learning Plaza will now be used by up to 60 pupils at a time. Areas on site have been specially designed for both indoor and outdoor learning, enabling the school to provide personalised learning that will help to prepare children for the transition from Primary to Secondary school, and further into higher education and employability.

Mr Brewer continued: "The Learning Plaza has fantastic sustainable credentials, meeting particularly high environmental standards, which is always important to Willmott Dixon, as a company that has in place an ambitious sustainability policy, including an objective to become carbon neutral by 2012 and send zero waste to landfill."

(CD)