The impact of indoor air quality on the comfort and well-being of students is gaining increased attention. Dr Hywel Davies, CIBSE Technical Director , summarises some recent research on the subject and describes the latest guidance on new schools design The need to maintain air quality in schools is a hot topic - literally. The Government is scheduled to publish a revised version of Building Bulletin 101: Guidelines on ventilation, thermal comfort and air quality in schools . The document provides guidance on the design and construction of school buildings in order to provide good indoor air quality and thermal conditions to create effective conditions for teaching and learning.  A draft of the proposed amendments has already been published. They call for the designers of schools in areas of poor air quality or in low emission zones to give careful thought to keep internal pollution within acceptable levels. One way of achieving this is to design a building to be airtight and

Fresh from its win at the H&V News Awards in the Best BIM Innovation award, CIBSE digital engineering consultant Carl Collins explains what BIMHawk is, and where it fits into the BIM landscape. In Level 2 BIM products are described by 3-D geometry and by their accompanying technical information. The output from separate modelling systems, eg. architectural, building services, structural engineering are combined in a single common data environment to create a digital 3-D representation of the building and its systems. Using this model software can then enable the coordination of the mechanical and electrical services, for example, with the other building components such as the structure. The same common data set, will allow an operative to select an object, such as a chiller, and interrogate its properties, such as when replacement parts are needed under planned maintenance. When collections of objects are joined to create a system, all of the objects in a system can inherit an

BIM is an area of constant innovation, but without the work of hundreds of volunteers this pace of change wouldn't be possible. Iain Paterson, Business Development Manager at UK fume cupboard manufacturer Safelab Systems Ltd.  gives a manufacturer’s account of creating the all-important Product Data Template (PDT) for a product category. Since they continuously expel conditioned air from a building, fume cupboards are an extremely influential component of the building services engineering remit for many educational and research   buildings. In a typical new university STEM building, where there might be from 30 to 130 fume cupboards, a complex interplay of face velocity, air flow rate, make-up air requirements and discharge velocities will have an impact on the design of HVAC systems and the required duct diameters and fan specifications.  The design will have a significant impact on the awarding of BREEAM credits. Modelling the effects of various fume cupboard configuratio