As in the past few years, CIBSE has reviewed last year’s awards entries to assess building performance across the projects, as well as the quality of the information provided.

In 2021, based on a review of all past entries, CIBSE introduced a data form to accompany the Project of the Year entries, to improve the consistency, quality and coverage of the building performance data provided.

This helps the judging process, and contributes to industry’s understanding of current best practice, in turn feeding into CIBSE activities such as the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (NZCBS).

Since then, entries have been reviewed every year, and updates made to the data forms to reflect evolving practice and improve clarity and data collection.

Quality of data

This year’s analysis confirms that the quality and scope of building performance data continues to increase. The award entries show fewer areas of data uncertainty, more consistent information, and wider coverage of building performance.

While a large proportion of buildings entered into the awards have onsite generation, the energy flows associated with the building and onsite systems are better reported than in previous years. This indicates better metering set-ups, as well as better monitoring and analysis.

SGA Consulting was crowned CIBSE Building Performance Champion for its retrofit of York Guildhall

In recent years, few entries had complete and reliable enough data to estimate the building’s energy use intensity (EUI) with reasonable confidence, but, importantly, this is now possible for the majority of entries.

What the data tell us

Last year’s data shows trends in delivery processes applied across the projects, similar to previous years. As expected, projects often used energy performance modelling (rather than just compliance modelling) – for example, Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) or CIBSE TM54 more generally. Many of them set energy performance targets beyond regulatory compliance, sometimes as contractual targets. They carried out post-occupancy evaluation, with attention to energy use as well as factors beyond it, such as indoor air quality, temperature monitoring, and interviews or surveys of occupants.

The new-build entries had lower energy use than the average building stock, sometimes significantly so; however, energy use was still higher than industry targets from the RIBA 2030 Challenge and LETI for the sectors where these targets are most established, such as homes, offices and schools.

In future years, the NZCBS, due for beta release later this year, will provide a further point of comparison, applicable across a wide range of sectors.

The majority of projects, and all the new-build ones, had onsite photovoltaics (PVs) – in some cases with significant export as well as self-use. The contribution of these PV systems varied significantly across projects, on average around 60-70kWh/m² per yr building footprint (ranging from 35 to 140), covering, on average, around 30% of the building’s annual energy use (ranging from 5% to 55%).

For comparison, in last year’s Technical Update Consultation, the NZCBS proposed an approximate target range of 80-120kWh/m² per yr for non-industrial buildings; this was only a draft and is being reviewed ahead of the beta release.

CIBSE looks forward to your entries, and wishes you all the best of luck!

To enter visit www.cibse.org/bpa

The post Building on performance: CIBSE awards analysis appeared first on CIBSE Journal.

It won Project of the Year – Leisure at the 2024 CIBSE Building Performance Awards with judges impressed by its careful, low carbon design and application of technology.

What’s more, the performance data has been used as an exemplar case study by the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, to help establish a best-practice benchmark for operational and embodied carbon for future leisure centre buildings.

To achieve this remarkable feat, building services engineers Max Fordham – working with architects FaulknerBrowns, the client and main contractor – have taken every design decision as an opportunity to minimise energy consumption further.

As such, the building incorporates a range of passive and active environmental technologies, including the extensive use of daylight and mixed-mode ventilation. In addition, heat is provided by air source heat pumps (ASHPs) incorporating load-shedding controls, while the complex is crowned by a giant biosolar roof that provides up to 20% of the building’s electricity needs.

The £57m sport centre’s low-energy design is a response to the university’s campus energy and sustainability masterplan. Developed by Max Fordham under a previous project, the masterplan includes a requirement for all new buildings to achieve Breeam Outstanding and a Display Energy Certificate (DEC) ‘A’ rating in operation.

Large rectangular rooflights supplement daylight in the pool area

To achieve DEC ‘A’, the design had to target a maximum EUI of 218kWh·m^-2 per year. Ambitiously, Max Fordham set out to meet this already challenging target without the use of fossil fuels. ‘When we started to develop the design in 2016, gas boilers were the standard solution, but we said “this building is not going to complete until 2022, when Grid carbon will be lower, so we should not be basing our design on fossil fuels”,’ says Mark Palmer, director and sports leader at Max Fordham. Opting for an all-electric solution would also ensure the building’s carbon emissions fall further as the Grid continues to decarbonise.

The university’s brief to the design team was for a sports centre with a 25m swimming pool, an eight-court sports hall, 175-station fitness suite, climbing wall, ski simulator, and fitness studios, along with offices and teaching spaces.

Palmer says the starting point in developing the building’s form was to separate the swimming pool from the ‘dry’ areas (the sports hall, fitness suite, and so on), so that the circulation space between can form an environmental buffer zone.

Unusually, the design places the sports hall on top of the ground-floor fitness suite and changing rooms. ‘One of the key decisions was to put the sports hall on the first floor, to ensure that it and the swimming pool could benefit from rooflights, to provide passive heating and daylight, which saves energy and is good for wellbeing,’ says Palmer.

One of the striking giant fans set into the ceiling in the gym. The fans have been designed to generate air movement to reduce the need to drive down the fitness suite air temperature

Flexibility is key to keeping the building’s footprint and embodied energy to a minimum. The swimming pool, for example, has a floating floor, to do away with the need for a learner pool; the squash courts are separated by a moveable partition to enable them to be converted into additional studio space; and the studio spaces incorporate a moveable partition that allow them to flex to accommodate a variety of class sizes and activities. The compact building’s high-performance envelope has been kept deliberately simple to avoid complex junctions and cold bridges.

In addition, the swimming pool envelope has been fortified with additional insulation, to deal with the higher air temperature and humidity in the space. Employing a simple, system-build envelope solution made it easier to build and, Palmer says, gave contractor Wates Construction ‘a fighting chance of delivering on the design airtightness and thermal performance in practice’.

The rooflights in the sports hall and swimming pool are designed to open. They are arranged in strips in the sports hall, strategically positioned between the badminton courts to allow daylight in while minimising the impact of glare on the players.

Max Fordham has eschewed natural ventilation for an innovative cooling and mechanical ventilation solution for the intensively used, 175-station fitness suite. Alongside a conventional fan coil cooling system, a series of large-diameter, high-volume, low-speed horizontal fans have been recessed into the ceiling, like the slowly spinning rotor blades on a series of upturned helicopters. These giant fans have been designed to generate air movement to reduce the need to drive down the fitness suite air temperature. The large fans are supplemented by 13 smaller fans concealed above the ceiling.

The conventional way to deliver comfort to a fitness suite is to lower the air temperature to help people lose heat. Sport England’s guidance, for example, suggests maintaining temperatures as low as 16°C-18°C. But Palmer says this can result in ‘very high energy use’ that often ‘fails to deliver occupant comfort’ because, when we are sedentary, radiation is the primary mechanism of heat exchange. As exercise intensity increases, however, convection and, eventually, the evaporation of sweat become the dominant modes of user heat loss. ‘If the air in a gym is cool, still and humid, your sweat is unable to evaporate to cool you down,’ Palmer explains.

For those undertaking high-intensity exercise, convective and evaporative transfer of body heat are increased significantly by air movement. ‘By creating air movement and controlling humidity, we are able to achieve much better levels of comfort at temperatures that are not as cold,’ Palmer adds. See ‘Fit for purpose’, CIBSE Journal October 2018 for more on this bit.ly/CJRav.

In addition to the giant fans, four-pipe fan coil units (FCUs) have been tucked out of sight above the suite’s slatted wood ceiling. The FCUs provide the space with heating and mechanical cooling. ‘The client was a bit nervous about the effectiveness of our giant fan solution, so the fan coil units have been sized to cool the space conventionally without the need to run the fans,’ says Palmer, who adds that the client need not have worried. ‘Everyone loves this solution: it’s striking to look at and it’s proven to be very effective.’

In addition to ensuring the university’s management and operations teams have a good understanding of the building and its systems, soft landings enabled the engineers to tweak the fan system once the fitness suite was fully operational. They estimate that increasing air movement in the fitness suite, as opposed to relying on a lower temperature setpoint, will result in a 10% reduction in energy use in peak summer conditions.

Heat for the building is supplied by five ASHPs via a low-temperature buffer vessel. To maximise ASHP efficiency, heating is at 45°C flow/40°C return, which, Palmer says, is ‘quite challenging when we need to heat the pool hall to 30°C. To operate the system at these low temperatures relies on high levels of heat recovery and a high-performance building envelope’. The solution also required non-standard fan coils, air handling unit coils and heat exchangers to exploit the low flow temperatures.

Reducing glare

Plots show the direct sun penetration at two points during the year. These simulations are conducted using a bespoke tool, Beam Tracer, created by Max Fordham to calculate specular reflections. Orange represents the direct sun transmitted through the glazing; pink is the reflection from the pool surface. As a result of the steep-angle reflections from direct sun through the top, lights remain at high level and do not enter the occupied zone, where they can cause glare. At low sun angles, some direct sun penetrates into the pool area and can cause glare to occupants. By carefully mapping the path of the sun, lifeguards can be positioned to avoid areas that experience glare from direct sun.

The ASHPs incorporate load-shedding controls to minimise peak heat loads and reduce their size, capital cost and embodied energy. Palmer says minimising heat loads, maximising heat recovery and using load shedding ‘has allowed us to squeeze the combined capacity of the heat pumps down to 525kW, around a quarter the capacity of boilers in a typical leisure centre’. This ensured the heat pump solution was space-efficient and economically viable.

The pool water heat exchanger, for example, has a heat demand of 500kW, which, under the usual control regime, would take up the full heat capacity of the ASHPs, leaving nothing for space and water heating. However, Palmer says the only time it needs to deliver this output is when it is heating the pool water up from cold.

For the majority of the time, the heat exchanger is only required to output about 50kW to maintain the water at a steady temperature – and because the pool water acts like a huge thermal battery, the system can wait until the demand for heat is lower. ‘We put a lot of work into ensuring the heat pumps are not oversized, because it would have been easy to think we needed four times as many heat pumps. But if you are in control of where the heat is going, it allows you to shed some of the loads,’ Palmer explains.

Two additional water source heat pumps are used to raise the water temperature from 45°C to 60°C to supply the hot water calorifiers.

In addition to the five heat pumps dedicated to heating, the sports centre has five, four-pipe heat pump chillers optimised to provide cooling, but which can also provide free heat to the building. These supply the FCUs with chilled water at 6°C/12°C. The units can simultaneously top up the thermal store using heat reclaimed from the cooling side. The heat generated by activity in the fitness suite and dance studios is captured and used to keep the pool warm and preheat hot water for the showers, explains Palmer. 

There is a heat recovery unit on the pool water filter backwash system, too. The backwash is used to clean the water filters. In addition, to maintain pool water quality, 30 litres of water is added to the pool per bather, with a corresponding amount removed. This water is used to flush the centre’s toilets.

Engineering the sports centre’s low-energy design was ‘the easy bit’, says Palmer, who adds that it is often the execution, rather than the design, that prevents schemes from achieving predicted energy performance. For Ravelin, Max Fordham was novated to Wates Construction under the two-stage design and build contract, and appointed by Wates Building Services to develop its installation and record drawings in Revit. The engineer also worked with Wates’ offsite manufacturer, Prism, to integrate prefabricated service modules and plant skids. ‘It meant we were able to take responsibility for the design from concept to installation,’ says Palmer.

Max Fordham also produced drawings for the client, with all CoBie asset information, as a full BIM project. Palmer is complimentary about how Wates Building Services (now SES) tackled the project. A two-stage procurement route ensured the contractor was able to price ‘every bit of kit specified, to avoid compromises with lower-efficiency alternatives’. Execution was also helped by the soft landings specification insisting that Wates appoint an independent commissioning manager (Banyards). Its task was no doubt helped by the building having more than 200 electricity and heat meters. ‘At completion, the building was properly and fully commissioned so that it performed well from the get-go,’ says Palmer.

Post-occupancy, the soft landings initiative requires Max Fordham to monitor the building and report each month on how the various spaces are performing – a task aided by the engineer having remote access to the BMS and meters.

There were also monthly meetings to gather client feedback. Palmer says: ‘If something was not working, it was raised at the meeting so that, by the next meeting, it had been resolved, which helped ensure the client never lost faith in the design and remained engaged in the low-energy strategy.’

A major challenge with sports buildings is the huge variation in occupancy throughout the day. In the evening, they are usually full and everything is running flat out, whereas, in the middle of the day, they are relatively empty. ‘M&E designs often only focus on meeting peak conditions and do not consider the other times when occupancy drops off,’ explains Palmer. ‘But you have some pretty powerful kit in this building, so you will waste a lot of energy if you don’t turn things down or off when occupancy drops.’

One issue raised post-occupancy was the level of local control that users should be given, particularly over the temperature of the fitness studios after complaints that these were either too hot or too cold.

Post-occupancy evaluation monitoring showed the rooms were performing as designed, with temperatures being maintained at 18°C, and CO₂ levels rising and falling, and the fresh air fans responding accordingly, depending on occupancy. After questioning users throughout the day, however, it became clear that when the spaces were used for high-intensity exercise classes, users found them to be too hot, whereas when they were used for a zen yoga class, for example, users were too cold. ‘We’ve now added a button to each studio to allow the temperature to be changed up or down a couple of degrees for an hour,’ says Palmer.

This approach has clearly worked, and highlights the benefits of a soft landings approach. Perhaps more impressive is that the scheme improved significantly on the original, challenging EUI target of 218kWh·m^-2 per year. 

The post Keeping fit with less energy: Ravelin Sports Centre appeared first on CIBSE Journal.

Renowned for his work in retrofitting commercial heat pumps, Draper has made substantial reductions in carbon and costs in large commercial properties, using an innovative and lean engineering approach.

The award judges praised him for encouraging others to make the changes necessary for large buildings to decarbonise in a cost-effective way. ‘While we saw many great examples of leadership and development of teams, the winner stood out for his creativity and practical delivery of innovation,’ they said. ‘He clearly has a passion for the development and growth of engineering.’

British Land’s 350 Euston Road was the first large-scale heat pump retrofit in a commercial office building. The project was led by Draper who, in 2012, was working for British Land. ‘It was a really steep learning curve,’ he recalls.

British Land was on a mission to reduce its energy use by 40% by 2015. The seven-storey office building’s three gas-fired condensing boilers and two air cooled chillers were approaching the end of their life. Retrofitting heat pumps was the obvious solution, Draper says, because, like most commercial offices, this one required concurrent heating and cooling for a large part of the year.

Model geometry for dynamic heat pump analysis with surrounding built environment

‘If you have a building that needs heating and cooling simultaneously, why would you run a separate heating and cooling plant when you could run a 4-pipe heat pump unit to help improve the building’s energy performance and reduce its carbon footprint,’ he says.

A major challenge in replacing the gas-fired boilers with an air source heat pump (ASHP) is the lower temperature of the heating supply. At Euston Road, the boilers supplied fan coil units (FCUs) on the office floors with water at 70^oC. While heat pumps can now produce water at this temperature, at the time they did not. Instead, the heat pumps were designed to operate at a much more efficient system temperature of 45^oC; with the FCUs supplied with heat at this lower temperature.

The project uses a Climaveneta ASHP, which has three basic operating modes: chilled water only; hot water only; and simultaneous hot and chilled water production. ‘When simultaneous heating and cooling demand occurs, heat energy can be obtained almost for free,’ Draper says.

In 2014, ASHP technology was unable to deliver a sufficient quantity of high-grade heat to meet the heating demand when ambient temperatures were low. For the Euston Road project, when ambient drops below 5^oC the building’s gas boilers kick in to meet the heat demand.

The solution worked. ‘The additional expenditure to retrofit the air source heat pump achieved payback within a year and now saves occupiers £60,000 every year,’ Draper says. In addition, the switch to using an electric heat pump as the primary heat source, as opposed to gas boilers, is helping to reduce carbon emissions by 470 tonnes a year and improve local air quality.

Draper frequently works with Darren Coppins, of Built Physics

Ten years on and the installation is still delivering. ‘What this first project demonstrated quite successfully is the use of a heat pump as a means of recovering heat,’ Draper explains.

Having proven the methodology, Draper has continued to build on this experience and the lessons learned from that initial project, both as an employee of British Land and, subsequently, as managing director of his own consultancy, Twenty One Engineering. He says retrofitting heat pumps is more demanding than installing them in new-build projects. ‘With new-build applications, there is generally more space and it is much easier to design systems from the outset to operate at a lower system temperature of 45^oC/50^oC to maximise heat pump efficiency,’ Draper explains.

He says the challenges for heat pump retrofits include ‘restrictions on plant space using existing plantrooms, limitations on the electrical power available, and the need to provide sufficient heat to existing equipment sized to operate at a higher supply temperature’. In addition, heating demands in offices tend to be higher now than they would have been in a 1990s office, because heat outputs from computer monitors and lighting are less, and office densities are generally lower. On the plus side, with a retrofit you will have the benefit of detailed metering information from the building, ‘so there will be far fewer unknowns’, he says.

My journey from apprentice to CIBSE Engineer of the Year

Draper has gone from ‘worst apprentice’ to ‘true leader’

I started out on an engineering apprenticeship, as a tool maker for e2v. Unfortunately, I cannot stand still, so, at the age of 18, I was told I was the worst apprentice they’d ever had and I was moved to facilities, where I undertook an electrical apprenticeship.

The e2v factory manufactures semiconductors and specialised components for medical, space and industrial applications. It has Class 10 and Class 10,000 clean rooms, and 11 substations – all high-end stuff. Learning about building services on a complex scale changed my mindset and I progressed to factory service engineer.

I left e2v to work for metering company EP&T, as technical lead. Our first big win was for British Land, where I designed and installed the metering system for nine of its buildings. I subsequently drove the energy management process for each, based on the operating data.

In 2011, British Land asked me to join them as senior engineering manager of its Regent’s Place complex. With experience of operating a Class 10 cleanroom, it is easy to transfer these skills to operating commercial office buildings. For the next three years, I drove operations at Regent’s Place to make the multi-let campus one of the most efficient.

In 2012, I started work on retrofitting a heat pump to 350 Euston Road – the first large-scale heat pump retrofit in a commercial building. By 2014, I was in a more central role, advising on how more of British Land’s buildings could target net zero. I started to engage with CIBSE and the Better Building Performance Group.

I left British Land to work, briefly, for a company called Cavendish, before setting up my own company, Twenty One Engineering, to use my skills and experience to deliver turnkey solutions for clients. These included British Land, where I continue to be involved in heat pump retrofits.

I’m a big advocate for apprenticeships, because that’s the route I’ve taken. Until now, no winner of CIBSE Engineer of the Year had done a hands-on apprenticeship – I should not be the only one.

The CIBSE BPA Judges said: ‘While we saw many great examples of leadership and development of teams, the winner stood out for his creativity and practical delivery of innovation. He clearly has a passion for the development and growth of engineering. A true leader by example and a genuine practitioner of engineering leadership.’

To assess the viability of a heat pump retrofit, Draper often works with Darren Coppins, of Built Physics, to model the building and its systems. The model references the metered operational data to confirm its accuracy. When the metered energy data does not match that predicted by the model, the team must assess whether the problem is with the building or the model, says Coppins. He adds that it might be down to problems with the existing controls or excessive infiltration, or parts of the building may not be working as they were intended.

‘We can drill into that data to see if it is something that needs to be addressed with building maintenance or whether the model needs to be tweaked to factor in something I’ve not allowed for,’ Coppins says.

When all parties are happy with the accuracy of the model, it is used to assess the operation of the proposed heat pump retrofit.

For an effective heat pump installation, Draper believes designers have to start to think differently about a project. ‘The historical approach to heating and cooling design was focused on meeting peak loads, but the average temperature in the UK probably sits between 8^oC and 15^oC,’ he says.

A heat pump being craned into position

It’s a point on which Coppins picks up. ‘We’ve got very used to using gas, which can be turned on and off very easily, but a heat pump does not work like that,’ he says. ‘With heat pumps, if we size them for peak capacity their lowest turndown won’t be low enough for them to operate efficiently or, potentially, reliably.’

For this reason, Coppins says it is important to optimise the heat pump for how it will run for the majority of the time: ‘We can predict that through building physics; rather than saying this building has a peak load of 3MW, for most of the time its load might actually only be half of that peak.’ He says a smaller-sized 4-pipe heat pump – ‘with a bit of top-up’ from an additional reversible heat pump – can be used to boost the heating and cooling outputs as required, and can provide a more reliable installation.

The downside of this type of solution is that the plant has to be hydraulically separated. For his latest project, however, Draper worked with Coppins to develop a conceptual retrofit design without the need for additional kit. ‘The system has been designed to work efficiently at 50^oC, but – to meet peak demand – we’re planning to boost the heat pump system temperature from 50^oC to 70^oC,’ he says.

Innovative solutions such as this are feasible because Draper is keen to involve manufacturers. ‘Before we finalise our design, we will get the manufacturers in to have a conversation, because not every heat pump is the same and not every application is the same,’ he explains.

Inside a 4-pipe simultaneous heat pump

Another reason the team at Twenty One Engineering is able to develop innovative solutions, Draper believes, is ‘the open relationship we have with British Land as the customer and with Built Physics’.

In the 10 years since Draper became involved in retrofit heat pump installations, he says the biggest technological advance has been with refrigerant gases, because these allow higher circuit temperatures.

‘At Euston Road, we could achieve a circuit temperature of 50^oC at an outside air temperature of 5^oC. When the outside temperature dropped to 0^oC, the system only achieved a temperature in the low-40s – while, at -5^oC, you would struggle to get up to 40^oC,’ he says.

‘Now, with different refrigerant gases, heat pumps can give us a system temperature of 55^oC at -5^oC ambient.’

The post Plantroom pioneer: CIBSE Engineer of the Year Phil Draper appeared first on CIBSE Journal.

Thorough research and testing of the Diffusion Highline 235 modular fan coil range has resulted in a product that considers whole life costing through the use of TM65 and local sourcing to reduce transport miles, the judges added. Energy, acoustics, performance, and the flexibility modularisation brings to deployment and onsite repairs have also been considered.

Working closely with customers, Diffusion researched every UK fan coil on the market to assess how it could improve the design to meet the changing needs of the industry.

As a result, its Highline range has been increased to eight, the modularity of which now allows almost 300,000 configurations. This means customers can select a unit that exactly matches their performance requirements rather than having to over-specify, ensuring the lowest energy consumption.

At design stage, the emphasis was on using fewer materials, reducing the volume of materials transported, minimising carbon footprint, and lowering running costs per unit size.

Leveraging high-efficiency EC/DC motor and fan assemblies, the units achieve a specific fan power as low as 0.14W.L^-1.s^-1, significantly reducing energy consumption and operational costs. Forward-curved centrifugal fans provide the most efficient airflow and acoustic performance in all models. Further acoustic benefits are achieved through ‘0’ fire-rated foam insulation.

The unit’s heat exchangers are manufactured from solid drawn copper tubes, mechanically expanded into pre-formed collars in rippled plate aluminium fins. Multi-circuit design ensures maximum thermal performance. For optimum heat transfer into the airflow, electrical elements are 8mm-diameter, fully sheathed, stainless-steel rods, with spiral-wound fins.

Highline 235 is supplied with Diffusion’s Lifetime Eco wire-mesh filter, which can be simply vacuum cleaned in situ. It lasts the lifespan of the unit. 

ISO-grade media filters are also available. When filters need to be cleaned or replaced, they can be easily removed from either the side of the unit or from beneath it.

In spaces where noise levels significantly influence occupant satisfaction, the Highline 235 range can achieve noise levels ranging from NR25 to NR40. Discharge plenums are available in rectangular or circular spigots, and inlet and discharge attenuators are available in lengths to meet requirements.

British designed and manufactured with a short supply chain, 70% of Diffusion’s fan coil units (FCUs) are transported less than 24 miles to end users in London, keeping carbon emissions to a minimum. The modular, configurable design means building owners can reuse the FCUs by repositioning them.

The CIBSE TM65 data-collection methodology was used to collect accurate and detailed embodied carbon information about the system. Working from a component level, this methodology ensures data is comprehensive and up to date.

Diffusion uses its in-house test facility to offer volumetric, acoustic and thermal performance testing, and customers can watch their chosen products being tested and certified. They can also input their building’s design parameters into Diffusion’s software to select the ideal FCU for their required temperature and flowrate. This includes data on correct heat exchanger selection.

The judges said the range of innovations among award entries this year showed that innovation doesn’t need to be ‘epic’ to be influential and beneficial. They also illustrated the importance of product testing.  

• For more on the winners at the CIBSE Building Performance Awards, visit www.cibse.org/bpa

The post High fives for Highline 235: CIBSE award-winning fan coil unit appeared first on CIBSE Journal.

It served as the city’s seat of governance for more than 600 years, but when York City Council relocated, it wanted to refurbish the historic complex and turn it into a digital hub for the 21st century.

Together, architect Burrell Foley Fischer and SGA Consulting set out to deliver the council’s vision.

The interior of the 15th- century York Guildhall

Alongside the creation of the digital hub, the project involved the refurbishment of the listed elements of the scheme to improve accessibility, occupant comfort and energy efficiency. It also included a new office extension and riverfront restaurant at the side of the complex.

The scheme’s numerous listed elements made for an extremely challenging refurbishment. Except for the listed cast iron radiators in the Victorian council chamber, all of the existing building services had to be replaced, as they were long past their prime. ‘We started by asking what interventions we could make to the listed buildings and then set about working out how to deliver these in the best possible way,’ says Bart Stevens, a director of SGA Consulting.

some materials were transported by river

The building’s location, adjacent to the River Ouse, made a river source heat pump (RSHP) the obvious solution to heat and cool the building. ‘The first time I went to the site, I took one look at the river and said “of course we’ve got to use this”,’ recalls Stevens.

Permission to use the river was obtained from the Environment Agency and the Canal & River Trust, and an unobtrusive route for the abstraction and discharge pipework was devised from the basement plantroom to the river.

Under the new scheme, 110kW of simultaneous heating and cooling is provided by a two-circuit, reverse-cycle RSHP. To optimise its efficiency, the heating circuit runs at 50^oC flow/45^oC return, while cooling is at 6^oC flow/12^oC return. The RSHP is also designed to recover heat if areas of the building require simultaneous heating and cooling.

Pipes taking water from the Ouse to the river source heat pump

A pragmatic fabric-first approach was adopted by SGA Consulting in developing the servicing strategy. Using the heat pump to service the new office extension and restaurant was relatively straightforward, because its fabric thermal performance exceeded Building Regulations minimum. However, the listed status of many existing elements and spaces meant opportunities to improve fabric thermal performance were limited. This had a major impact on how and where the heat pump-derived heat could be used.

The office extension and riverfront restaurant

The lower temperature of the heat pump heating circuit made it ideal as a heat source for underfloor heating, because the large floor area helps compensate for the lower temperature of the emitter. The heat pump is also used to supply heat to fan coil units (FCUs) in some of the office spaces. These incorporate oversized heating coils to compensate for the circuit’s lower flow temperatures.

Operating in reverse mode, the heat pump uses river water, extracted at up to 22^oC and returned at 25^oC, to also provide chilled water to the FCUs in south-facing river frontage rooms. ‘These rooms required cooling as well as heating, so we were justified in replacing the existing radiators with modern FCUs in these rooms,’ explains Stevens. 

Reinstating Victorian natural ventilation

SGA Consulting has resurrected the original Victorian ventilation system to help alleviate stuffiness and overheating in the Grade II*-listed council chamber.

The original building services proposal incorporated a series of FCUs to keep the council chamber comfortable. The units were to be placed outside the chamber and holes knocked through the wall to enable the units to circulate air. Historic England was not keen on the modifications, so an alternative solution had to be devised.

‘I said “I bet the Victorians had a way of ventilating the room”,’ recalls SGA Consulting’s Stevens. Low-level ventilation inlets had been identified in the external walls, hidden behind the cast iron radiators which also provide preheating to air entering the chamber. ‘After hunting around, we managed to find some holes in the ceiling, concealed behind rose-shaped bosses, which allowed the warmed air to exit the chamber and enter the roof space,’ says Stevens. In the roof, the ventilation system was originally linked into the flues from the coal-fired boilers using wooden ductwork . The system exploited the pressure differential caused by the upward flow of air from the boiler flues to induce airflow through the council chamber.

The original council chamber ventilation system

SGA Consulting set out to reinstate the original ventilation system, to enhance the airflow without any discernible visual impact in the council chamber. The coal-fired boilers are long gone, but the system still uses the original boiler flue. Because of fire regulations, the Venturi effect from the boiler flue had to be abandoned, so the airflow is now enhanced through the addition of a small axial flow fan.

To further control airflow in the council chamber, motorised dampers (controlled on CO₂ and temperature) have been added to the low-level intakes behind the radiators. Should they so wish, councillors also have the option of opening windows.

SGA Consulting has also managed to hide four cooling-only FCUs beneath raised daises in the council chamber. This helps keep the space comfortable when the council is in session and the room is full of people. The consultant has also resurrected the original Victorian ventilation system in the chamber to further improve comfort.

A major benefit of using a RSHP to provide cooling was that it removed the need for an external air cooled condenser, which would have been noisy and visually obtrusive in this overlooked, congested and historic part of York.

The RSHP is housed on a plinth in the potentially flood-susceptible basement plantroom.

Alongside the electric RSHP, the scheme also includes three new gas-fired boilers. These supply a conventional low-pressure hot water heating circuit at 80^oC flow/70^oC return to furnish the cast iron radiator circuit in the Victorian parts of the building, along with two domestic hot water calorifiers that serve the new kitchen and toilet blocks. The boilers also provide back-up heat to the heat pump circuit, should the heat pump fail.

‘We used the heat pump in all of the spaces where we could make it work, but the heat losses are so great in the Victorian areas, and the floor areas fixed, so we had to reuse existing cast iron radiators and gas boilers to provide sufficient heat,’ explains Stevens.

The new extension to York Guildhall

Heat losses in the 15th-century Guildhall were also particularly high. The building’s Grade I listing meant that it was too difficult to enhance the thermal performance of the solid stone walls and there were insufficient funds to add secondary glazing to the windows. The team was, however, able to hide additional insulation in the roof as part of the lead-replacement works.

Bomb damage during World War II meant that the roof, floor, and some upper walls of the Guildhall had either been rebuilt or replaced, so English Heritage permitted underfloor heating to be installed in the 7m-high space. Even so, heat losses were so great that the heat pump-supplied underfloor heat system alone was insufficient to keep the space comfortable. ‘The heat losses were too high and we were very limited as to the interventions we could make,’ says Stevens.

Boilers are used on very cold days because of high heat losses in the historic buildings

SGA Consulting’s solution was to supplement the underfloor heating with trench heaters concealed within the floor and connected to the higher-temperature gas-fired boiler circuit, for use on cold winter days.

‘When the outside temperature drops below 5^oC, the trench heaters turn on,’ Stevens explains. As a consequence, trench heating will only deliver 12% of the Guildhall’s annual heating demand, with the rest provided by the heat pump circuit. ‘This type of mixed use shows how heat pumps can be used to provide heating to old buildings where the rate of heat loss would be too high otherwise,’ says Stevens.

After the scheme’s completion in 2022, SGA Consulting followed a soft landings regime for two years, to optimise performance of the building services. Lessons learned include:

• Keeping the Guildhall underfloor heating off on cool summer days because of the long time lag in delivering heat
• Turning off the heat to the domestic hot-water systems over weekends when appropriate
• Reminding the client of the two-speed control for kitchen ventilation.

The strategy to re-use a centuries-old building, revitalising it for use for future generations, achieved significant savings on embodied carbon emissions. Equally importantly, the project succeeded in securing the future of the Guildhall complex; the University of York is taking a long-term lease on the historic buildings to create a business hub for spin-off firms from the university. This will contribute to the city’s future and is proof that historic buildings can be refurbished and remodelled to meet contemporary needs.

SGA Consulting’s approach to the project certainly impressed the judges at this year’s CIBSE Building Performance Awards, where the project won a host of awards, including Building Performance Champion.

The judges said of the scheme: ‘With the challenges we face in renovating millions of existing buildings, the York Guildhall project shows what can be achieved to deliver sustainable building refurbishment, minimise embodied carbon and deliver such a project with the most difficult site-access conditions’. 

The post Bridging the gap: the 2024 CIBSE Building Performance Champion appeared first on CIBSE Journal.

The objective was to provide general design optimisation advice from early stages, with a focus on façade and window optimisation, and to conduct feasibility studies and energy strategy optioneering. The project’s scope included support for various modelling studies, such as thermal comfort, daylight and compliance modelling. Additionally, detailed TM54 (operational energy) modelling concluded with a formal Nabers Design for Performance (DfP) assessment that awarded the building a 5.5-star rating (out of 6), one of the few in the UK.

The selection of the modelling tools was made to provide robust feedback within a demanding timeframe. The tools were used for early fabric and operational performance analysis, complex scenario modelling, interoperability, parametrisation for ease of scenario testing and a single modelling platform for the Stage 3-4 analysis (coordinated technical design and final specification.)

The tools selection included:

• ‘SketchUp, designPH and PHPP for Stage 2 feasibility studies
• ‘Rhino, Grasshopper, Honeybee for Stage 3 daylight analysis
• ‘EDSL Tas for Stage 3-4 detailed loads, comfort and energy modelling.

Early Stage 2 included modelling with SketchUp, using the plugin designPH that simplifies the entering of data into Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) to understand energy demands, test the feasibility of different options and set projectspecific targets. The combination of tools allowed for a quick feedback loop, where different fabric specifications were tested to see their impact on heating and cooling demands. Ventilation options were also tested, including a fully mechanical option and two scenarios with a mixed-mode approach, which showed that significant reductions on cooling and ventilation demands could be achieved.

To evaluate the impact of these options on project targets, an early-stage TM54 model was built in PHPP, with internal gains aligned with Nabers DfP and the available design input at the time. The study indicated that implementing mixed-mode ventilation could elevate the performance from one UKGBC Net Zero bracket to another, prompting the decision to integrate it into the detailed design. The key findings and results at this stage played a pivotal role in guiding the client’s decision to pursue an official Nabers rating.

Ease of geometry manipulation in SketchUp allowed for quick updates in the model’s form in Stage 3, which was then transferred to Rhino, where it was progressed further to carry out a daylight study using Grasshopper (thermal and parametric modelling in Rhino) and Honeybee (building performance simulation in Grasshopper). This model allowed for quick tests on materialities (material selection for specific aesthetic and functional effects) and glazing lighting performance. The results were not only used to inform the Breeam certification, but also to gain insights into the daylight control conditions in the perimeter zones defined by reviewing the resulting illuminance levels.

Throughout Stages 3 and 4, EDSL Tas building modelling and simulation software was used to carry out modelling tasks that informed the design further, such as load calculations, Part L compliance, and thermal comfort, and to reinforce the overall design by verifying performance. In Stage 3, Tas was also used to build a preliminary TM54 model that informed the potential Nabers rating. In Stage 4, more detail was incorporated into the model, including actual ventilation rates, size, performance and operation of each individual DX-coil unit, demand-control ventilation details, sizes of selected plant and productspecific parameters, such as temperature correction factors and part-load ratios, to inform the seasonal efficiencies of cooling and heating plant.

In addition, the proposed BMS weather prediction component was introduced to regulate window operation, AHU and DX-coil units. This was achieved by generating schedules of open/closed-window days through an analysis of simulation weather files and defined operating conditions, including indoor temperature thresholds, outdoor temperature limits, wind speed, and CO2 levels.

For the DfP assessment, to guide the design process while safeguarding performance, certain risk scenarios were modelled, including one where mixed-mode ventilation was not used. This scenario validated the conclusions drawn from the Stage 2 feasibility study, demonstrating how a mixed-mode approach can significantly reduce the operational energy demands of the building.

After concluding their involvement, the design included: a high performing envelope with fixed shading elements in key locations; highly efficient all-electric air conditioning; mixed-mode ventilation; full LED lighting with daylight control; maximised PV installation; and submetering of all floors and plant equipment.

This highlights the value of an integrated modelling workflow, as it allows early feedback, thereby shaping the decision-making process, and driving the design process from initial stages to completion.

■ Alexandros Chalkias MCIBSE is director – Sustainable Design, Savills Earth and CIBSE Building Simulation Group events secretary

The annual Building Simulation Awards are organised by the CIBSE Building Simulation Group. www.cibse.org/get-involved/ special-interest-groups/ building-simulation-group

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When it won the Building Performance Consultancy of the Year (up to 50 employees) at the CIBSE Building Performance Awards 2023, the judges said the consultancy was a good example of a ‘developing practice’, adding that they were impressed by the entrant’s ‘incredible’ focus on net zero carbon and by its demonstration of diversity, inclusion and equality.

‘Our USP has always been a focus on cutting carbon; the clue’s in our name – we’re all about crossing out [X] CO₂,’ says Tom Kordel, a director of the practice and one of its co-founders. ‘While cutting carbon is not new now, 15 years ago it was novel to have a business whose sole focus was to reduce carbon emissions within the built environment,’

From inception, the practice was set up to provide environmental consultancy and MEP design. That is still the case now, Kordel says, although, over time, it has added more strings to the environmental side of the business, such as daylight consultancy and overheating assessments, to provide ‘a more holistic service’. 

Similarly, its MEP services now include energy audits and post-occupancy evaluations, services that Kordel says help its engineers gain an insight into how buildings operate in reality. ‘Without understanding how a building works in operation, engineering designs will never improve,’ he adds.

It is the business’s focus on cutting emissions and on environmental issues that has made it attractive to engineers and consultants with a passion for environmental building design and low carbon engineering. 

Their skills give the practice the ability to look at buildings holistically, which means influencing the architecture to exploit passive design and making designs intuitive to use and operate. ‘If you’re going to focus on driving down energy use and CO₂ emissions, I think the best designed buildings are often the ones with the least amount of building services and that are simplest for people to use,’ says Kordel.

Many of those attracted to work for the practice are women; almost half of its current workforce is female, making XCO2 unusual among engineering consultancies, where, on average, women make up only 14.5% of the staff. ‘We want the background of our team to reflect the society in which we operate, so that balance is important, as is a balance between technical disciplines,’ says Kordel. 

XCO2’s attraction as an employer is no doubt helped by a progressive approach to enabling its employees to achieve a healthy work/life balance. They have the option of working from home three days a week, but, more radically, staff work a nine-day fortnight, with alternate Fridays off. 

Kordel says the policy of working fewer hours was introduced pre-pandemic, initially as a trial to ascertain its impact on business efficiency – but the scheme proved so popular that it has been retained. ‘It gives people the opportunity to do their life admin without having to use their weekend, which has helped a lot in terms of staff retention,’ says Kordel.

Perhaps less unusual in a sector struggling to attract talented engineering students, the business is also culturally diverse, with many of its overseas employees recruited to the business from university Master’s courses. ‘We have always looked to have a diverse workforce in terms of gender and ethnicity, because it brings a lot of ideas and creates a friendly, open, innovative culture within the business – and it does help to win work, because the businesses we work with tend to be culturally very diverse,’ Kordel explains.

The new solar installation at the back-of-house facilities at the Soneva Jani luxury eco resort in the Maldives

Two of the key business sectors in which XCO2 is particularly strong are social housing and luxury resort hotels. On the face of it, these businesses – catering for the opposite ends of the wealth spectrum – would appear to have little in common, but, according to Kordel, both have a vested interest in low energy operation and low CO₂ emissions. 

‘Social housing is very focused on eliminating fuel poverty, so having low energy and efficient buildings is really, really important, while luxury hotel developers and operators tend to keep assets for a long time, so they too have a vested interest in keeping energy use low,’ he explains.

The creation of more affordable housing ‘chimes with what we want to do as a business’, adds Kordel. However, it was the company’s hotel work in Southeast Asia that led to it opening an office in Singapore in 2016. ‘We have a strong reputation with hotel operators in the area, and we felt that being closer to architects and developers based in Hong Kong and Singapore was really important,’ he recalls.

The completed Jazz Yard project for Sixty Bricks, which delivers 83 new homes (50% of which are affordable) and a new NHS health centre in Waltham Forest

Many of the hotels and resorts that XCO2 work on in the region tend to be located on remote islands, without access to an electrical grid or mains water, so its net zero design is a practical necessity rather than a nice-to-have solution. ‘To have a holistically sustainable development, circularity around water, waste and energy is important, as is solar energy generation,’ Kordel explains.

XCO2 is also involved in charitable work in the region, including with the Hemis Monastic School in Northern India. Here, it is working pro bono on the design of a new school for Buddhist monks, located next to a 17th-century Buddhist monastery. The scheme is designed to use predominantly passive means to achieve thermal comfort in a cold, high-altitude desert with annual temperature swings of 60^oC.

Site photo from Hemis Monastic School, a new residential school for 500 trainee monks in Northern Ladakh , 13,000ft up in the Himalayas

Key to the success of the school’s challenging design is dynamic thermal modelling. This has been used from the earliest design stages to test and fine-tune a variety of measures – such as Trombe walls – to improve the building’s performance. Computational fluid dynamics have also been used to design and size the building’s solar latrines, which feature dark-painted solar chimneys to passively ventilate the toilets.

The use of digital tools and digital innovation are seen as potential growth areas for the business – an opportunity that has led to the company setting up the XCO2 Lab, to help it identify problems and time-intensive processes ripe for automation. The lab is intended to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and is led by Aidan Kelly, technical lead for the CIBSE Society of Digital Engineering steering group and contributor to CIBSE Journal.

The Soneva Jani luxury eco resort in the Maldives

In addition to contributing articles for publication, XCO2 shares knowledge by making time for its engineers to get involved with industry initiatives such as LETI and, more recently, the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard. So what’s next for the developing practice? 

‘Now that we’re post-pandemic, we want to push towards growing the business, our client base, and the scale of projects we work on,’ says Kordel. 

‘Alongside the interesting, much smaller, more bespoke projects that we enjoy doing, we’re now working on schemes with thousands of homes where we can have an even bigger impact.’

The post The X Factor: XCO2’s holistic approach to environmental consultancy appeared first on CIBSE Journal.

The judges said the entries not only showcase a breadth of innovation, but also reveal a keen understanding of the importance of application flexibility while adhering to stringent regulatory standards. They were impressed by the calibre of the shortlist, saying ‘the range of innovations demonstrates that the product doesn’t have to be epic to be influential and beneficial’.

The CIBSE Building Performance Awards will take place on 29 February 2024 at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel in London. To book your place visit bit.ly/CIBSEbpa24.

Stiebel Eltron UK: VLR 70 L Trend

Stiebel Eltron UK introduced its VLR 70 L Trend, a decentralised ventilation unit, in response to the need for landlords and property owners to implement measures to deliver good air quality in social housing and commercial properties. This fully automated unit improves indoor air quality, reduces moisture, and recovers up to 92% of heat, in spaces up to 100m2.

Installed in pairs – either in one or adjoining rooms with good airflow between them – one unit will extract while the other brings in fresh air. The units switch several times a minute between each other to allow the heat exchanger to capture energy from the outbound air, which is then picked up by the incoming air. The unit incorporates smart sensors to account for occupancy, humidity and air quality. With a comprehensive filter system, including F7 filters, the VLR 70 L reduces pollutants, allergens and virus particles.

Vent-Axia: Sentinel Apex

Vent-Axia’s Sentinel Apex commercial heat recovery unit provides fresh, filtered air, combating indoor air pollution and removing pollutants such as moisture and CO2. With up to 93% energy recovery, the unit efficiently uses waste heat, achieving a market-leading 93% thermal efficiency (EN308 tested). Key features include an automatic summer bypass, motor efficiency equivalent to better than IE5 efficiency class, demand control for optimising IAQ, and ultra-low sound levels.

The system was designed for adaptability, energy conservation, and personalised comfort. Vent-Axia’s in-house testing facility and market research informed the unit’s development, focusing on low specific fan power, efficiency, and low sound levels. The unit, which has been specified but not yet installed, is expected to deliver high performance in diverse climates, addressing the demand for sustainable, energy-efficient building solutions.

Glazpart: Link Vent 4000

The Link Vent 4000, a trickle vent for windows and doors to facilitate passive airflow in dwellings, has received excellent feedback for its simple, user-friendly design. An equivalent area of 4,000mm2 is delivered through a 167mm x 13mm slot, reducing routing machine times and waste materials generated. Further increasing its versatility, the Link Vent 4000 can cool a house when overheating or moderate temperatures through smart ventilation when properties become cold and heating is turned on.

The closing action allows more control over draughts by directing air away from occupants, and the split closure plate enables partial opening. The system was created to address the need for ventilation in smaller rooms and aligns with the 2022 legislative changes. Fully compliant with the Building Regulations, the vent enhances air quality and prevents overheating, and received positive feedback from industry leaders.

Daikin: VRV 5 Heat Recovery

Daikin’s VRV 5 Heat Recovery system is a sustainable and efficient HVAC solution for commercial buildings. Its three-pipe heat recovery technology allows simultaneous cooling and heating, enhancing efficiency with a low condensing temperature. The system includes Daikin’s Shîrudo technology, which uses the integration of a sensor, shut-off valves and alarm to detect and isolate potential leaks. Daikin says this enables rooms to be tackled as small as 10m2 without additional calculations or measures.

Daikin also offers embodied energy assessments for the system based on the TM65 calculation methodology. It shows a decrease of up to 53% in embodied carbon. Case studies, such as the University of Lincoln and BBC Earth Experience, showcase successful installations, highlighting the environmental considerations and energy efficiency.

Kampmann UK:WZA – Decentralised Scholl Ventilation Unit

This unit, introduced to the continental European market in late 2021, enhances air quality and minimises virus concentration. It is designed to improve indoor air quality in classrooms, where research has found that elevated CO2 levels can hinder concentration. With a maximum airflow of 280l/s, the WZA unit features automatic airflow control based on CO2 levels, ensuring it stays below a programmed concentration.

Equipped with an enthalpy counterflow plate heat exchanger, the unit efficiently recovers thermal energy and optimises humidity levels, which is particularly beneficial in winter. Operating on mixed-air ventilation principles, it introduces supply air without draughts. The company focuses on minimising whole life carbon, and the WZA materials are designed to be easily taken apart and separated for recycling.

Healthy Air Technology: Distributed Air Purification System

This holistic air purification solution, integrated with BlockDox buildin management systems, takes a novel approach to combine indoor air quality and building performance. By pairing the HA800 air purification technology with BlockDox’s IoT-enabled platform, the solution optimises spaces for health, comfort, and energy efficiency.

The HA800’s multi-layered filtration system captures pollutant particles as small as 0.3 microns, ensuring clean, healthy air. Its closing action controls draughts, and a split closure plate enables partial opening for enhanced user control. By integrating real-time data from the air purifiers and other building systems, BlockDox’s platform empowers precise and responsive management of environments. It is user-friendly and easy to maintain.

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Designed by Waugh Thistleton Architects working with structural and façade engineer Eckersley O’Callaghan (EOC), the 17.8m-high building features a hybrid beech laminated veneer lumber structural frame, with a core, the floorslabs and staircases all built entirely from cross-laminated timber (CLT).

More impressive still is the façade. Designed by EOC, this is also constructed from timber. It features floor-to-ceiling glazing supported by a glulam composite timber/aluminium curtain wall, complete with external timber louvres to provide solar shading. 

The façade’s size and innovative use of timber makes it unique in the London office market, an achievement recognised by the judges of this year’s Façade 2023 Design and Engineering Awards, run by the Society of Façade Engineering (SFE), at which the scheme won the UK Innovation category.

‘Despite initially considering an aluminium façade, in line with typical office buildings in London, we carried out a comparative analysis of embodied carbon and façade-profile depths structurally required to achieve the spans for both timber and aluminium options,’ says Ben Buckley, senior engineer at Eckersley O’Callaghan. ‘Ultimately, timber proved to have significantly lower embodied carbon content than aluminium, while maintaining a comparable profile depth, which maintained the net internal floor areas.’

The louvres increase in depth as they ascend the building

One of the biggest challenges in attaching a timber façade to a timber building is the need to accommodate movement from the timber swelling and shrinking in response to changes in moisture. With the superstructure constructed from timber, it is lighter, and prone to greater movement from wind loads and occupancy, than if it had been built with a concrete frame. 

Fortunately, EOC was also the project’s structural engineer, so façade engineers were able to work with their structural engineering colleagues to predict structural movement during construction and when occupied, to ensure these could be accommodated. ‘Early coordination enabled stringent deflection criteria to be specified and designed to minimise the risk of design changes once contractors were appointed,’ explains Buckley.

The curtain wall spans CLT floor slab to CLT floor slab, with differential movement accommodated through the connecting brackets. ‘To accommodate the larger, long-term deflections of the timber structure compared with a concrete structure, we also designed a thicker horizontal transom to accommodate the movements,’ says Buckley.

The floor-to-ceiling glazed panels that enclose the floor plates are punctuated with inward-opening casement windows to enable the workspaces to be naturally ventilated as part of a mixed-mode ventilation strategy.

EOC’s façade engineers engaged with the building’s MEP engineers, EEP, to refine the shading solution of timber louvres. Parametric modelling was used to determine the layout and form of the louvres to enable solar control and to maximise daylight on the floor plates, to minimise the need for artificial light. It was also used to meet the daylight levels required for Well and Breeam certification.

The resulting timber louvres run from street level to the roof; they are positioned horizontally on the southern façade, and vertically on the east and west façades. Spaced at 375mm centres, the louvres increase in depth as they ascend the building. A secondary structure supports the timber fins to transfer loads to the 1,200mm-spaced mullions. 

Tulipwood, a readily available hardwood from the USA, has been used to craft the louvres. For this project, it has been kiln heat-treated to enhance its stability and durability, thereby extending its service life. As the building has been designed to be demountable, the louvres can also be removed and repurposed at the end of the scheme’s life. 

It is one of the first times wood from this tree species has been used in the UK, so EOC had to work with the American Hardwood Export Council to obtain the appropriate testing, strength and durability information.

The louvres’ fire performance was also enhanced. The European standard EN 13501 defines the reaction-to-fire performance of construction products. To enable the louvres to meet the Class B reaction-to-fire performance, the timber fins are impregnated with a fire-retardant resin to ensure they only make a ‘limited contribution to fire’. As there was no UK fire test data available for tulipwood, EOC had to organise for a fire-testing body to undertake testing before the fins were procured. 

View of the curtain wall with horizontal fins

For this pioneering building to comply with the fire regulations, and to respond to insurance company concerns post-Grenfell, detailing on this project was developed with the client, fire engineer, building control body, and product suppliers and contractors to alleviate all potential risks. Fire performance is further enhanced by having sprinklers throughout the building.

As the awards judges recognised, the engineering of the Black and White Building is highly innovative and proof that carbon-minimal construction can be achieved through clever design. It is the tallest mass-timber office building in central London, and its innovative façade sets a new precedent for contemporary low carbon architecture. 

• For more information on the Façade 20023 Design and Engineering Awards, and the full list of the winners visit: SFE Façade 2023 Design and Engineering Awards.

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Project of the Year was divided into six awards, and showcased a diverse range of entries. There was an emerging theme of prioritising wellness within buildings, plus a heightened awareness of climate change impacts. Judges observed a commendable understanding of the challenges faced by the sector, saying that projects are ‘extending their focus beyond just the energy performance, to a space where building performance becomes far more holistic’. In particular, Project of the Year – Retrofit drew attention for its emphasis on embodied carbon conservation, highlighting the crucial need to retrofit older buildings to meet net zero targets. 

The judges were impressed by how these standout projects exemplified effective solutions, showcasing a positive shift towards sustainable building practices. Similarly, in the Project of the Year – Commercial and Offices, the judges saw an impressive amount of innovation and creative thinking.

A new category, Project of the Year – Leisure, was introduced, acknowledging a number of exceptional projects that delivered on their buildings for leisure through a spectrum of servicing methods – from passive to highly complex and efficient systems – with the building’s purpose being a priority. 

Ravelin Sports Centre – Max Fordham, Project of the Year - Leisure

The Best Digital Innovation Award, introduced last year, proved highly competitive, with more than 20 entries of ‘exceptional quality’. Judges noted a prevalent theme of decarbonisation and a significant shift towards incorporating machine learning into real-world applications. 

The inclusion of robust data across various categories, including Best Digital Innovation, was praised, emphasising the importance of tangible performance metrics as a key way of visualising performance. However, judges for the Project of the Year – Residential category expressed a desire for more data-centric schemes, signalling a potential focus area for future innovations in the industry.

Facilities Management (FM) emerged as a standout category this year, with a robust field of entries. The judges commended the ‘positive impact FM can have when it takes an active role in engaging with building users, especially in the context of decarbonisation and energy management’. Collaboration and knowledge sharing across the entire value chain were highlighted as promising trends.

The Building Performance Consultancy award was divided into categories based on employee count, to recognise outstanding practices that excel in collaboration, innovative protocols, and inclusivity.

In the category for firms with up to 50 employees, the judges saw some ‘stunning entries’ from consultancies engaging in best practice, knowledge sharing and wellbeing. ‘We’re seeing companies that are really focusing on the humans who actually work for them – it’s great,’ the judges remarked.  

The 51-300 employees category highlighted the importance of inclusivity, but called for more innovation. The 300+ employee category demonstrated significant improvements from the previous year, showcasing a clear commitment to addressing the climate challenge through extensive knowledge-sharing initiatives and upskilling programmes. Training and development of young staff was key for many of the firms shortlisted.

York Guildhall – SGA consulting, Project of the Year - Public Use

The CIBSE President’s theme of engineering leadership was evident in the Engineer of the Year category. Judges noted a clear ability among contenders to embrace knowledge sharing and a genuine willingness to develop others. They were also pleased to note the diversity of candidates from across building services, with the pandemic cited as improving our ability to communicate with anyone, wherever they may be in the world. 

Similarly, the Learning and Development category showcased strong entries that focused on the dissemination of knowledge throughout the industry, with an emphasis on areas that have the most impact on building performance. Peer-to-peer learning was highlighted as an important mechanism for transferring specialist knowledge to others.

The Collaboration Award demonstrated the industry’s recognition of the critical role collaboration plays in achieving optimal outcomes, with a noticeable trend towards using data analytics for enhanced decision-making. The entries demonstrated the ‘art of the possible, and where we all need to get to’, said the judges. 

Hackbridge Primary School – Introba/Architype, Project of the Year - Leisure

Embodied carbon was another key theme throughout the categories. The Embodied Carbon Award highlighted the industry’s commitment to reducing embodied and operational carbon, with a growing awareness of end-of-life emissions. The judges were impressed by the sector’s dedication to practicing circular economy principles.

A commitment to meeting net zero goals was showcased in entries for Product or Innovation of the Year, which was divided into air quality, thermal comfort and wellbeing categories.  A wide range of products was seen in the air quality section, including for refrigeration, water heating and ventilation. Entries showed an understanding of the need for flexibility of application, as well as maintaining regulatory standards. ‘The range of innovations demonstrates that the innovation doesn’t need to be epic to be influential and beneficial,’ the judges said. 

Ross Lucas Medical Sciences Building, University of Lincoln – BAM Design & Yonder, Project of the Year - Leisure

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, London, on 29 February 2024. To book a table, visit www.cibse.org/bpa 

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