Closing the Performance Gap in Buildings - July 2023

Closing the Performance Gap in Buildings

Welcome to closing the performance gap in buildings! I'm sure everyone will agree, our new doodle map of Manchester in our Canada House office looks stunning and will help to navigate our way round with some of our clients buildings in the city highlighted.

For this months edition, we will look at some ongoing projects across the design side of the business where each have impressive sustainability credentials to support them.

How not to (of the month)

This month we came across this bit of foil tape covering a 330kW forced burner, safety first!

Clarendon House

Our latest CAT-A office project for Abrdn, Clarendon House, is now well underway on site.

The prominent black exposed ductwork, cable tray and VRF FCU are now being installed with the linear pendent white tuneable lighting installation to start next month.

Some key design features of the building services include:

Exposed ductwork which is internally lined to give industrial appearance while protected from condensation and dampening of any air noise.

Wireless window contacts which de-energise the mechanical ventilation when the windows are opened

Lower window sill heights, enlarging the windows to enhance the natural light and reduce reliance on artificial light

Enhanced levels of fresh air, up to 16 litres/second/person for maximum occupancy density of 1 person/8m2

All going well the refurbishment will be ready for Tenant fit-out September 2023 and when complete, will benefit from:

EPC rating?????????????-??????????‘A’

BREEAM rating???????-??????????‘Excellent’

NABERS rating????????-??????????4.5*

WiredScore????????????-??????????Target Platinum

Host Student Housing - Westfield Road

Located on Westfield Road in the Gorgie area of Edinburgh, the new build 289 bed PBSA development by Host will bring an unused site, currently occupied by an office/ car showroom, back to life in the form of high quality student accommodation, which will support the regeneration of wider area.

The development will comprise a mix of accommodation, with accessible studios and cluster apartments of five, six and eight bedrooms. The project is on target to achieve BREEAM Excellent.

Planning Approval was granted in March 2023 and the project is now moving forward to procurement stage with completion due in Summer 2025.

KJ Tait are carrying out full M&E Design for the all electric low carbon building and are also providing the BREEAM Assessor role.

James Hutton Institute

Advanced Plant Growth Centre (APGC)?and International Barley Hub (IBH) Engineering Services first fix is about to commence.

Main Plant items are appearing on site and the MEP services 3D model is complete with fabrication of distribution systems progressing for site installation.

The APGC and IBH facility will combine science and technology to translate research into not only barley crops but farming, brewing, food and health sectors internationally.

New technologies will be piloted for crop management, controlled environments will be used to develop improvements for the entire food and drink sector in fact, the aim really is to help feed the world.

The Engineering services are designed specifically to suit the various specialist areas within the building and are both energy efficient and flexible. Air source heat pumps are used for all heating and cooling and also domestic hot water. Specialist services include laboratory fume extract systems a pressure controlled laboratory ventilation.

The new building envelope is being constructed with enhanced thermal properties and an air permeability of 3m3/h/m2 @ 50 Pa. The Energy Performance Certificate rating is calculated as B+.

The development is a partnership between Scottish and UK Governments, academic, private and voluntary sectors.

Watches of Switzerland

The new Watches of Switzerland office HQ achieved PC?on-time?last month at Carlton Park in Leicester.

The 2x existing buildings have had a comprehensive refurbishment with all gas boilers replaced with air-source heat-pumps throughout for all space heating and hot water. We also replaced all the air-conditioning units and ventilation throughout the building. There are also 20x EV Chargers on each building to fully prepare the buildings for their net-zero carbon future. The 1998 Santander building was not a bad building, but energy use and carbon emissions have been halved as a result of the new M&E installations.

It looks great with a nice mix of exposed services in circulation and corridor areas and normal acoustic ceiling in open-plan areas. We relaxed the lighting level and uniformity in non-desk areas which really creates semi-domestic atmosphere as you move through the space. Modus were the main contractor, with Quadrant Architects and Morgan-Carr the project managers.

Woodlands Hospital

As part of our community support, KJ Tait are delighted to be partnering with MAPP and The Capital Building in Liverpool to provide MEP Consultancy support for the Woodlands Hospice Charitable Trust in Aintree, Liverpool at no cost to them.

This is with a view to helping them run their facility more efficiently, reducing energy costs and assisting with their capital expenditure planning to ensure any replacements or upgrades are as efficient as possible for the future.