IN DEPTH
Building sustainable futures: Lessons in design
Wright & Wright Architects have worked on a number of major library, archive and gallery projects, with a focus on sustainable design. Here, Passivhaus Designer and Associate at Wright & Wright Kirsty Shankland looks at how sustainability and environmental impact considerations are delivering new standards for the sector.
FOUNDED in 1994, London-based Wright & Wright Architects specialise in the design of archives, libraries and galleries. The Women’s Library, completed in 2002, was the practice’s first library project and at the time was hailed as an exemplar of sustain- able architecture, as the UK’s first passively-controlled archive to be built in an urban setting. Subsequent projects have presented an opportunity to evolve these ideas further and challenge ourselves as designers. In 2018, Wright & Wright capitalised on knowl- edge acquired over many years to publish a book on Special Collections, amplified by contributions from leading industry experts. Intended as a typological and historical survey, it went beyond discussing technical requirements to illuminate the many facets of a complex and highly specialised building type.
It is widely known that the UK government has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the UK to net zero by 2050. The construction industry is a significant contributor to the emissions generated by the built environment, which make up 40 per cent of the UK’s overall emissions. In response, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has developed the 2030 Climate Challenge strategy, which sets out a series of targets to be adopted on projects, with the aim of reducing operational energy and embodied carbon, while improving potable water, mental and physical health and wellbeing.
34 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Kirsty Shankland (
ww@wrightandwright.co.uk), Passivhaus designer and Associate, Wright & Wright Architects.
www.wrightandwright.co.uk
When designing a genuinely sustainable library, the decisions made at the very start of a project are crucial to its success. These include:
l Managing building orientation to ensure that users occupy spaces around the perimeter to benefit from natural light and ventilation;
l placing archive stores in the depth of the plan in sealed, environmentally stable containers;
l developing a simple, uncomplicated struc- ture to reduce embodied carbon;
l selecting materials from sustainable sources that will endure over time;
l detailing the building envelope to ensure thermal efficiency.
June 2022
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