Developed by Henley Camland, the ‘Alkerden Education Campus’, as it will be known, will provide more than 2,200 places to nursery, primary and secondary school pupils and will be operated by The Aletheia Anglican Academy Trust. The scheme also includes a dual-use community sports centre which will accommodate 500 people at any one time, together with extensive external pitches. Located on ‘Fastrack’, the rapid bus transport system serving the area, the 11.1 hectare site is strategically placed within the emerging Ebbsfleet Garden City, one of the most extensive development sites in the Thames Gateway. A prime location positioned between Kent and London, over 15,000 new homes are planned for Ebbsfleet Garden City, and as such the education campus will provide an important community and civic anchor for the area. The quarry and agricultural heritage of the site has directly influenced the design concept and material palette. The primary school will showcase brickwork reminiscent of the locally-distinctive reddish-brown quarry topsoil, with the secondary school brickwork adopting a paler grey tone, drawing upon the underlying chalk landscape for which the area was quarried. The primary school will also feature natural ventilation cowls, evocative of the traditional ‘Oast’ structures seen in agricultural communities throughout the region. The use of natural ventilation is just one of many sustainable credentials designed into the campus buildings. Materials and construction methods have been selected to reduce the quantities of VOCs used in the construction process and energy-efficient fabrics and systems are being explored to minimise energy demands, thereby reducing the embedded and operational carbon footprint of the development.