44


MULTI OCCUPANCY BUILDINGS PROJECT REPORT


question of why aren’t people doing it.” He quotes WHO statistics which show seven million people die from air pollution each year and says that such figures, in the context of the fact that build- ings account for 40 per cent of harmful emissions, are key drivers for Lumiere, not simply maximising profit margins.


Brownfield regeneration


The former brewery site a mile south west of the centre of this London commuter belt town was acquired by Lumiere in 2012 and currently holds an empty four-storey office building.


Hemel Hempstead was named ‘the UK’s ugliest town’ the year after the site was acquired for development. However, the Beacon sits at the centre of the Hemel Evolution regeneration programme, and is adjacent to 400 acres of protected Boxmoor Trust green belt land.


This helps explain why there has been a large amount of interest among buyers, in addition to the combination of sustainability and luxury living, and the fact that the town is 24 minutes from Euston station. The use of a brownfield site bolsters the


project’s sustainability credentials further, as does its comprehensive recycling strategy. The soft strip and soft demolition of the office building on the site has already been under- taken and materials will be, where possible, recycled in other buildings, including the new tower.


Materials that have been reused elsewhere include cedar cladding, and Lumiere has reused fittings such as air con and VRV units, doors and frames, locks, ceiling and carpet tiles, cables, furniture and decking in its own office. Once the hard demolition is complete, the superstructure will be reused as aggregate for tower construction plus access roads.


Building form


The tower has been designed to not only offer a high degree of air-tightness and a lightweight construction but also with a focus on aesthetics, says its architect. According to Vyas, beauty has not always been linked to sustainable design: “There are sustainable developments which don’t look that great or exciting – I think this will be a stunning building from far away, and up close.”


Following extensive research into how to create a lightweight in situ concrete tower block using fewer materials, the design team rejected an original scheme with the traditional in situ concrete columns and slabs, and opted for an innovative, largely


WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK ADF FEBRUARY 2017


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100