News

A 6,700 m2 design & build project comprising new headquarters offices & library on the outskirts of Inverness for Scottish Natural Heritage was completed in June 2006 achieved an excellent BREEAM score of 84%, confirmed by BRE as the highest score ever achieved by any building in the UK since the system was introduced.

Other major sustainable/renewable energy project recent commissions such as the Middlehaven redevelopment in Middlesborough (for Bioregional Quintain Ltd), Finzels Reach redevelopment in Bristol (for HDG Mansur) and Project STAR biomass power generation scheme in Norwich. Our Sustainability Group is now increasingly commissioned by property developers at a very early stage for mixed use developments to carry out the full spectrum of renewable energy and other sustainable design strategic studies in readiness for outline planning application. This forms the platform for the ongoing design development.

Another recent news item is that Dave Cox, Ivan Rodriguez and Chris Reetham have been accepted on to the new CIBSE Low Carbon Consultants Register launched in September 2006. They are also Registered Assessors for BREEAM and EcoHomes scheme applications.

DSSR are pleased to announce their expansion into Birmingham by the acquisition of Malcolm Lamb Associates in Birmingham, which took effect as from 1st April 2003. Tony de Caux is Partner in Charge, supported by Brian Drye and Kevin Taylor.

The office has market strengths in healthcare, education and museum projects and is anticipating increasing its share in all other market sectors.

Current projects include schemes at:

This move by DSSR is indicative of their increasing workload and confidence in consolidating their UK office coverage. This is an advantage in their growing partnering agreement opportunities, which are applicable across the UK.

Client : Robertson Capital Projects

Completed : June 2006

BREEAM Rating : Excellent. The building achieved a BREEAM score of 84%, confirmed by BRE as the highest score ever achieved by any building in the UK since the system was introduced.

Project Description : 6, 700 m2 design & build project comprising new offices & library on the outskirts of Inverness.

Energy and Water Consumption :

As part of the bid submission process energy targets for the building along with the requirement for an “excellent” BREEAM rating were stated. In order to meet these targets it was decided at an early stage that the building and associated services installation designs would need to be fundamentally different from the design for a “standard” office development.

A natural ventilation solution for the building was developed in tandem with the use of exposed thermal mass, atrium ventilation stacks, external solar shading and a night time ventilation strategy. The developed building was then subjected to computerised dynamic thermal modelling to ensure that comfort conditions were maintained throughout the year without the need for providing an air conditioning system.

Daylighting was also maximised in the building design in order to reduce running times for artificial lighting.

The building fabric was also specified to a higher standard than required by Building Standards in order to reduce energy consumption associated with heating the building.

A large number of additional features were also incorporated into the building services design in order to minimise energy consumption and carbon emissions. These included:

The use of high efficiency condensing boilers, coupled with lowered heating system temperatures and the use of underfloor heating in the atrium area.

• Lighting control system to take account of daylight and presence detection.

• The use of dry coolers for the Comms Room air conditioning plant in order to utilise free cooling.

• Solar collector system to meet part of the domestic hot water load.

• Use of “windcatcher” type natural ventilation for some high occupancy internal rooms.

• Presence detection control on ventilation systems.

• Use of variable speed fans and pumps along with zoning of the heating distribution system to suit possible different occupancy levels.

• Extensive metering of systems to ensure that energy consumption can be monitored against targets on an ongoing basis.

• Use of a building management system to control mechanical plant and motorised windows / vent stack dampers to maintain air quality and allow night time cooling to take place.

The predicted energy consumption of the building was analysed from bid stage onward, with any design development proposals being included in the analysis to allow monitoring against the energy and carbon emission targets to be achieved.

In order to minimise water consumption a rainwater harvesting system was designed and installed. This provides a water source collected from the rainwater falling onto the roof of the building for flushing WC’s, which is generally the major source of water consumption within buildings. A number of other design features were incorporated to minimise water consumption, including:

• Use of percussion type low flow taps

• Flows to WC’s and urinals controlled by presence detection.

• Utilisation of leak detection to ensure that water is not been wasted due to faulty overflows etc.

• The use of extensive metering of water supplies to enable ongoing monitoring to be achieved.

The change in building concept to achieve the required energy targets did impact on the capital cost of the building. However, as they were clearly identified from an early stage in the project they were allowed for by the Developer and his team. The use of an energy target allowed Scottish Natural Heritage to assess their energy savings against energy benchmarks for “standard “ office buildings.

With regards to the strategy for addressing transport issues a major part of this was designing a building that encouraged the use of bicycle use. Therefore cycle paths were provided to and around the site along with a secure covered bicycle compound, a drying room for wet clothes and high quality shower facilities. Negotiations were also undertaken with the local bus company to make them aware of the increased usage that would be associated with this new facility. On this basis the frequency of bus services was increased, thereby encouraging the use of public transport.

At DSSR we offer consultancy advice on how you can maximise the sustainability of your project and provide both formal assessment and advice on designing to achieve the optimum BREEAM and EcoHomes ratings. It is now become a standard planning application requirement to demonstrate how the minimum stipulated renewable energy component (typically 10% now, but increasting) of energy consumption forecasts will actually be achieved.

Sustainable technology research includes the use of photvoltaics, wind turbines, biofuels, solar thermal energy, landfill gas, energy from waste and carbon trading. We also advise on the orientation & fabric of buildings, shading, daylighting and fenestration, ventilation rates, recyling, lighting, motor & metering strategies.

DSSR's Sustainability Group have been accepted on to the new CIBSE Low Carbon Consultants Register launched in September 2006. They are also Registered Assessors for BREEAM and EcoHomes scheme applications.

To get further information on our ‘Designing for Sustainability’ and ‘Green Projects’ please contact london@dssr.co.uk