New College Stamford to go green

A £50 million project to create an environmentally-friendly complex at New College Stamford has been artistically represented to give the first glimpses of the building.

Said to resemble a Hobbit’s shire home, the college’s new addition will be hidden under a dome of grass, with oval-shaped windows cut into the turf to allow light in, the Peterborough Evening Telegraph reports.

The building will be powered by renewable energy through the use of wind turbines and solar panels, the news provider states.

Planning permission and secured funding pending, the college expects to be able to open the new buildings by 2010.

Speaking at the unveiling of the designs, Miles Dibsdall, principal of the education centre, remarked: "We are working with international experts on the new build to use the best and latest technology to create a true green building and we are also focused on being zero carbon."

Peterborough’s city council recently bought a factory in order to expand its recycling facilities and create an energy-from-waste plant.