PROJECT REPORT: COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS 23


panels and air-source heat pumps providing heating and cooling. Waste heat is re-used. There is no greywater recycling within the building, although it was considered; Wood explained that there was no room within the existing fl oor to ceiling heights for the necessary services. Materials, wherever possible, were sourced sustainably and in a form that will allow them to be recycled. The architect looked at the possibility of re-using the old cladding in some form, especially as it was panellised and mounted on a precast concrete facade which meant that removing it was relatively easy. But Wood explains that, although the team looked at re-using some of the stone within the terazzo fl oor in reception, this proved to be impractical. Because the stone was bonded to the concrete panels, it would have needed to be crushed and used as the base. At the time, this process could only have been carried out in Italy, which would have meant shipping the heavy panels there and then bringing back the fi nished material, negating the environmental savings. Wood however remarks that now,


ADF JUNE 2025


companies in the UK are doing this work. The brief for the building was to achieve an EPC of B and BREEAM Excellent. It surpassed both of these, with an EPC of A and BREEAM Outstanding, both the highest rankings available. It is also ‘WELL Platinum-ready’ (the WELL Standard, which measures the health of buildings by seven criteria, can only be fi nally confi rmed when the building is occupied and in full use). The credentials don’t stop there. The building has also been rated on the Australian NABERS rating scheme which measures both the embodied and the operational carbon of a building. The original target was to go for a fi ve-star rating which equates to excellent (the scheme goes up to six stars, which is ‘market leading’). But the target was lifted to 5.5 stars – likely to be the maximum possible within an existing building. The fi nal rating will not become available until the building has been in use for a full year. The building has also achieved both


a WiredScore Platinum and SmartScore Platinum. There is a relationship


WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK


The organic shape of this triple-height space is like a statement of intent for the entire building


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