Campus Gotland opens new climate-smart lecture hall
Campus Gotland has a new climate-smart, student-centred lecture hall. As one of the University's most important profile and focus areas, sustainability has naturally permeated the entire project. The aim is for the lecture hall to achieve net zero emissions.
The renovation of room B51, which has been underway since December 2021, is now sufficiently advanced for the room to be used for teaching. The project was funded from Uppsala University’s climate pot, the aim of which is to address several aspects of the University’s climate impact. This includes performing calculations and documenting energy consumption and efficiency in combination with a lifecycle analysis. In the near future, energy consumption for heating, electricity and ventilation will be displayed in real time on a monitor in the lecture hall.
Upcycling and reuse have been used throughout the renovation; for example, chair frames have been welded into new benches and seat cushions have been reused for the new risers, which are themselves constructed from recycled pallets and clad with the worktops from the old classroom. All other furnishings are reused from local sources on Gotland.
B51 is now also an active learning classroom with a distinct student focus. It is ideal for collaborative forms of learning, with round tables in the centre, benches along the sides, as well as the seating risers. The lecture hall does not have a front or back, so lectures can be given from the desired direction. The fixed furniture in B51 accommodates 90 people, but it can be furnished with up to 120 places.
Once the renovation is complete, the lecture hall will go by the name B51 Äutsikten, which means "prospect", "hope" or "opportunity" in the local Gotland dialect.
If you have any questions about energy balance and lifecycle analysis, please contact Professor Tor Broström at tor.brostrom@konstvet.uu.se.
For more general questions about the project, please contact team leader Sara Cederlund at sara.cederlund@uu.se.
Information on the lecture room B51 on the Campus Gotland website.
Viktor Jacobsson
Glossary
Net zero emissions, means compensating for emissions of greenhouse gases (CO2e) with negative emissions, or by binding carbon in some other way, to achieve a balance of zero
Upcycling, conversion of waste materials to something useful or valuable
Active Learning Classroom (ALC), classrooms designed for student collaboration, with round tables and technical equipment to facilitate peer review and peer learning