UWC to open green campus

April 21, 2008

UWC to open green campus

Eco features at Tampines school will cut energy use by 25%

By Jane Ng

UNITED World College South-east Asia's second campus in Tampines will be an eco-friendly one, complete with solar panels, sky gardens and a rainwater tank.

The campus, to be ready in 2010, aims to save the Earth as well as money while teaching environmental lessons to its students, said college head Julian Whiteley.

The rainwater tank, for instance, will have a see-through pipe running from it, so students can watch rainwater being collected and filtered for use in the school's gardens.

The green features in the $300 million school for students aged five to 18 will cut energy consumption by 25 per cent, said Mr Whiteley.

Besides theatres, music studios, language and science laboratories as well as art rooms, the school will also have a section for children - with a treehouse, a pool and two playgrounds.

It will have one other feature no school here is known to have: A 50m-long tubular slide that can whoosh students from the second level down to the garden.

Mr Whiteley said the 'practical' design excludes slabs of granite, which are expensive, and full-length glass walls, which make air-conditioning systems work harder.

At 5.5ha, the campus will be about half the size of its Dover one.

It will, however, make up for its smaller land area with space-savers like an elevated soccer field and underground sports halls and carparks.

It will also have a 19-storey boarding house for foreign students here on scholarships.

The campus was planned to mop up demand from the growing number of expatriates here. It will take in 2,500 students eventually, compared to the 2,900 at its Dover campus.

Until the campus is ready, students will use an interim campus in Ang Mo Kio. It will start off with 420 pupils, from kindergarten to Grade Four, when it opens in August.

The rising number of expatriates - up from 798,000 in 2005 to 875,500 in 2006 - is putting a squeeze on international schools here.

Mr Whiteley said the average waiting time for a place at UWC is four years, but some parents make enquiries even before their children are born.

janeng@sph.com.sg



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