Chuka Umunna MP

Dunraven School has opened a landmark new sports hall complex, constructed from recycled shipping containers. The innovative building has been shortlisted for Britain’s top public architecture prize, as one of the 24 buildings vying for this year’s Prime Minister’s award for Better Public Building.

The sports hall, which took only three months to construct, was built under the government’s Building Schools for the Future programme. Dunraven has benefitted from £20 million of investment under the programme, and a large-scale redevelopment and rebuilding programme at the school will begin next year.

Because of the structure of trade between the developing world and the west, the number of sea containers being shipped to Europe is significantly more than the return traffic and it is not worthwhile shipping back empties. Re-using them as building materials is an environmentally-friendly way of solving this problem, and is extremely cost effective: Dunraven’s sports hall would have cost an additional £0.75m using conventional materials.

Many environmentally-friendly features were incorporated into the building. These include a rainwater harvesting system, weather-controlled heating and motion-sensor lighting controls.

Last year, Chuka was honoured to be invited to speak and present prizes at Dunraven’s annual student awards ceremony.