Corpus Christi College. Photo © Picture Plane
Once these key decisions have been agreed and energy requirements min- imised, renewable energy sources can be introduced to meet the building’s energy demand and reduce or negate the need for fossil fuels.
Sustainable framework
There are a number of internationally recognised sustainability accredita- tion programmes for buildings. While these in themselves do not guarantee a sustainable building – and should be critically examined to understand any blind spots – they can provide a useful framework to ensure that initial intent is not lost in the course of the building process. Zero-carbon design, BREEAM and Passivhaus are often used within the construction industry to measure the sustainability credentials of a project. While each approach has advantages and disadvantages, Wright & Wright has successfully adopted these techniques on a variety of library projects, including St John’s College, Oxford, Corpus Christi College, Oxford and Lambeth Palace Library in London. Completed in 2019, a major new Library and Study Centre for St John’s College, Oxford was designed to achieve net zero-carbon. The project achieved carbon neutrality by reducing emis- sions as much as possible at the design
June 2022
stage and offsetting the remaining carbon through the use of renewable energy. The college’s existing libraries are housed in the Grade I-listed Canter- bury Quadrangle, one of Britain’s most significant baroque ensembles. Set within the President’s garden and bordering the Groves, a Grade II-listed garden, the new Library and Study Centre is linked to the 16th century Old Library and 17th century Laudian Library, establishing an active connection between Canterbury Quad and the college’s northern precincts, strength- ening links between different eras and reactivating the heart of St John’s. Adding to the historic continuum of St John’s, the new building is an outstanding academic library for the digital age. Set on a chal- lenging site, its elegant, contemporary architectural language abstracts the col- lege’s baroque heritage, while achieving new benchmarks in sustainable design. The 1,940 sqm Study Centre incorpo- rates a number of sophisticated passive environmental control measures designed to reduce its energy consumption. The building has a high thermal mass with an emphasis on natural ventilation and day- lighting. An arterial system of ducts and tunnels funnel air through the concrete mass to heat and cool spaces. Heating and cooling are provided by water from ground-source boreholes under the adjacent Great Lawn, and photovoltaic
Corpus Christi College. Photo © Wright & Wright
panels – which are either hidden discreetly behind parapets or integrated in the cen- tral mono-pitched roof – contribute to electricity generation. Such measures are designed to fully offset the building’s car- bon emissions to achieve a carbon-neutral status in both the new and old build- ings. Basement archive stores meet the exemplary conservation standards of BS 4971 and are regulated by simple con- servation heating and cooling, as well as being fire-protected by a gas suppression system.
Passivhaus design
Around the time the St John’s project was completing, Wright & Wright were commissioned by Corpus Christi College, Oxford to design a new Special Collections Centre and Library. The innovative design will be delivered to rigorous Passivhaus standards of construction, energy use and environmental control. In 2017 the University of Oxford Estates Department elected to use the Passivhaus method- ology to guide its projects, and while Corpus Christi is not required to adopt this method, it has opted to undertake a challenging approach to sustainability. In order to achieve this, the building must be designed to an energy demand threshold of 15kWh/m2/year, a much more rigorous target compared with the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge strategy, which calls for a 35kWh/m2/year threshold.
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