This 2200m2 office building project involved the construction of five storey accommodation including admin offices, a business resource centre, top floor seminar rooms and a reception area at ground floor level. Small office units for start-up businesses were located on the upper floors with toilets, kitchen and tea making facilities throughout the building.

Our initial aim was to maintain summertime temperatures within the building, via natural ventilation – without the need for mechanical cooling. Unfortunately, the costs involved in constructing a heavyweight building which would benefit from night time cooling outweighed the advantages of natural ventilation. Instead, we installed a highly efficient heat recovery VRV system which could be split into smaller units and enabled cost-saving heating and cooling. The project was awarded an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM energy rating.