Refurbishment | Mott MacDonald F
rom civic buildings to universities, museums and castles, heritage buildings pervade the UK. England
alone contains five million buildings constructed before 1919, including around 500,000 listed buildings, according to research by English Heritage, the National Heritage Training Group and CITB- Construction Skills.
Increasingly, these structures are reaching a critical point of refurbishment opportunity as their vulnerability due to age converges with a national drive to make buildings more energy
efficient. By taking action, heritage building owners can extend their buildings’ lives, halt structural deterioration, reduce impacts on the environment and improve financial viability. Typically, the overarching motivation to renovate is to conserve the country’s built heritage for future generations. Energy efficiency, structural restoration and financial sustainability all play a part in fulfilling that objective, and are goals in themselves. Building performance is an area of increasing focus as the UK strives toward its target of reducing
RICHARD SHENNAN
l Richard Shennan is Mott MacDonald practice manager for buildings, and specialises in building performance, underground energy storage
and building information modelling (BIM). Shennan is an expert in delivering sustainable solutions through infrastructure, building fabric and building services engineering.
He has worked on landmark buildings including London’s Natural History Museum, Brighton’s Jubilee Library, and the 1851 Commission estate in London including the Royal Albert Hall and Victoria & Albert Museum.
Shennan is Mott MacDonald’s BIM champion, and a member of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) BIM Steering Group. He has contributed to international conferences on BIM strategy and implementation.
national greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 (from the 1990 baseline). English Heritage predicts that historic buildings’ energy efficiency will come under closer scrutiny after 2016 and 2019, when the government has pledged that all new domestic and non- domestic buildings, respectively, must be ‘zero carbon’. Meanwhile, these ageing buildings may have sustained damage that requires urgent attention to safeguard the building’s longevity. Water ingress is a typical problem and can ravage steel- framed buildings, as
the resulting corrosion produces volumes of rust capable of displacing masonry. Many of the UK’s grand institutional buildings have steel frames, meaning corrosion is a major threat to the country’s built heritage. Ageing buildings are expensive to maintain and operate, so there is also a financial argument for refurbishment. Energy efficiency has obvious long term cost benefits, and refurbishment can boost income from sources such as tourism and venue hire. Achieving such improvements without causing irreversible damage or disturbance to the building’s fabric can be a formidable task. Stakeholders such as English Heritage administer strict rules to protect historic character and authenticity, and any refurbishment must be skilfully designed within these requirements.
Design ingenuity Mott MacDonald recently
demonstrated this design ingenuity through its detailed design of new mechanical and electrical building services for a major castle refurbishment project. Existing voids were used to maximum effect – for example, a disused chimney became a home for new service risers. Lighting was designed to resemble the candlelight of the period: highly energy efficient electric lamps were mounted in fittings that concealed uplighting to supplement light levels. Water tanks were housed in an existing vaulted cavern in the castle grounds, and fire alarms and exit lights were recessed into timber door frames,
global-opportunity.co.uk ISSUE 01 | GLOBAL OPPORTUNITY 2014 143
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