Sustainability
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Hybrid ventilation for Air Ambulance headquarters
Breathing Buildings, provider of controlled hybrid ventilation systems, has supplied ventilation to the new East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) headquarters which has sustainability at its heart
T
he project extended and largely rebuilt EAAA’s original facility at Norwich Airport as a base for their operations, including the Helicopter
Emergency Medicine Service (HEMS) recently extended to 24 hours per day, ground support, fundraising and training. The brand-new section of the building features
Breathing Buildings’ NVHR 1100 natural ventilation with heat recycling units together with S1500L e-stack ventilation units. Designed by architects Feilden+Mawson, the brief
was to create a practical building that was a great place to work while being sustainable. To achieve this, they took a fabric first approach, looking at the make-up of the building rather than applying sustainable or green technologies as bolt on items.
22 March 2022 The building design considered the proportion of
glazing, levels of insulation and the thermal mass of the building. Having successfully used the hybrid ventilation over a number of years in new build schools, it was the M&E Consultant Johns Slater and Haward who recommended the system as the ideal solution to provide good indoor air quality (IAQ) and comfortable indoor temperatures using low energy solutions. Other key members of the project team comprised: the structural engineer, Canham Consulting; the project manager and also cost consultant, Real Consulting; the main contractors, PJ Spillings; and M&E contractor, FG Fennell & Company. “We were aware of the benefits to the workplace that Breathing Buildings brings and it aligned with
our holistic design ethos of it being integral to the building and not an add-on”, explains Stuart Jones, partner at Feilden+Mawson LLP. “The knowledge of having a workplace that would provide a healthier office environment for EAAA’s team, that could monitor and help manage carbon dioxide levels for the benefit of that team, was one none of us wanted to miss. Whilst the building utilises sustainable technologies achieving the functionality required for a multi-use facility it also achieves the visual impact, we wanted to achieve.”
In addition to the units to assist in maintaining the internal temperature in very warm weather, most rooms are provided with opening windows and also have motorised louvres at low level to provide additional air change rates during periods of high external ambient temperatures. To provide the additional mass, exposed reinforced concrete floors and a concrete roof construction with suspended acoustic baffles and exposed services have been utilised. The mass naturally moderates the internal temperatures, reducing the temperature peaks and troughs. By operating the hybrid ventilation at night to use the cooler ambient temperatures, natural cooling is provided which ensures that at the start of each day the internal spaces are comfortable and fresh, allowing comfort levels to be maintained internally throughout the day under most external conditions. “We proposed hybrid ventilation for this project
as it provides good IAQ and comfortable internal temperatures without the need for mechanical cooling which will result in a higher energy use. Working in conjunction with Breathing Buildings the building was thermally analysed using dynamic
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Photos: © Sarah Toon Photograph
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