Buildings Case study
Lee Valley athletics centre – ventilation strategy
> both the construction and operation of the building. So Bentham sought ways to exploit the building’s
An important
an important aim of the building design was to provide extensive passive energy saving potential through daylight,
the best possible training venue, with the lowest natural ventilation and thermal mass for cooling. This
aim of the possible carbon footprint,” says Smith. advice on the building’s ‘form’ – including factors such as
building design
The indoor centre includes 130 metre sprint straights, orientation of the building and its mass – was fed through
was to provide
specialist facilities such as weights, a conditioning gym, to designers David Morley Architects.
full indoor ‘jumps and throws’, as well as permanent All the building’s controls are zoned so that different
the best possible seating for 500 spectators. areas with different systems can work independently – and
training venue
“It is a huge building,” says Max Fordham’s design this is key for controlling the amount of energy used.
with the lowest
physics specialist Tom Bentham. “Different people use “If people are running in the sprint track and not the rest
different parts of it at different times.” of the building, then the lights may need to be on there,
possible carbon along with ventilation and heating. But you don’t want to
footprint.
heat or light the rest of the space,” Bentham says.
Extensive exposed thermal mass – consisting of two
– Neil Smith
Effect of therma mass or temperatures on a
section through the athletics hall and sprint flanking concrete walls, a concrete slab that is the sprint
track on a hot day. (external air temp 27ºC) track ceiling and the spectator stand, which is again a
huge concrete slab – act as a large heat sink that limits
temperature swings.
These concrete blocks absorb heat, particularly in the
height of summer, including solar heating from the
two glass end walls as well as heating from occupants
and electrical equipment. This is then radiated on cool
nights to warm the building and boosted by night-time
natural ventilation, which helps cool the thermal mass and
eliminates the need for mechanical cooling.
The building fabric itself is air-tight and well insulated,
and the ratio of solid to glazed areas is optimised to keep
solar gain to a minimum. The fixed external shading to
the south façade minimizes solar gain in summer but
maximises this in winter for passive solar heating.
Mechanical intervention is targeted and minimal. The
main athletics hall, sprint track and the majority of the
ancillary spaced is naturally ventilated. This is achieved
through 240 WindowMaster motors that open and
close windows so that the correct amount of ventilation
satisfies both air quality – in terms of reducing CO2 – and
temperature.
42 CIBSE Journal June 2009 www.cibsejournal.com
CIBSEjun09 pp40-44 leevalley.indd 42 28/5/09 15:26:56
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