Features of the Building
The Gateway Garden
The Gateway was built on the site of the old Ravenscliffe First School. This means that we have quite large grounds surrounding the building. Since the building was opened in February 2005 local volunteers have been working really hard to turn the rather scruffy grounds into a really nice Community Garden to complement the Centre .
Bradford Community Environment Project and RHS Harlow Carr have been supporting us as we gradually transform the grounds.
We have a community garden, 15 allotment plots for local people to grow food and hopefully a spectacular wildflower meadow at the front of the building.
Environmental Features of the building
The Ravenscliffe Community Association has always taken environmental and sustainability issues seriously. The Gateway was designed to be an energy efficient building and where possible to use sustainable building materials.
The Gateway has a large Photovoltaic Roof that generates a third of all the electricity needed to run the Centre. The RCA installed this using a grant from The Energy Saving Trust to demonstrate what can be done when putting a new building these days. The remainder of Electricity for the Centre comes from Good Energy, a 100% renewable energy company.
The building itself is a Timber Frame construction made from sustainably sourced timber, it has higher than average insulation levels and also the double height corridor acts a passive ventilation system for the building
