The ‘building as a power station’ approach was built on the premise of ‘doing more with less’, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The site was very constrained, so to achieve the net-zero challenge, a unique and collaborative approach was required.
Before the design stage began, and to complement our own team’s knowledge of carbon-zero delivery, the project team partnered with renewable energy experts from research group SOLCER (Smart Operation for a Low Carbon Energy Region) to develop the project proposals. Then, working collaboratively with architectural and engineering consultants IBI and Hydrock, the team underwent an intensive process to bring these theoretical elements into a practical application.
To do this, the team utilised IBI’s parametric modelling analysis which allowed the design team to understand the surrounding area and context along with opportunities to reduce energy consumption and site constraints. More precisely, the software was used to identify the following:
Building Orientation
Sunlight Impact
Maximise Helpful Radiation in Winter
Minimise Harmful Radiation in Summer
Wind Speeds to help cool building in summer and to avoid large areas of façade facing prevailing wind
By running the project through this intelligent software, the project team have been able to make early design decisions to focus on making the building energy positive.
Through a combination of the passive measures from the parametric modelling, the team could advise on the most efficient mix of renewable technologies to evidence how the building could generate more energy than it consumes.
This data-driven software has informed the ratio of windows, the position of the building and the orientation of elements on-site. It has also allowed the project team to make decisions on specific materials which has drove savings in embodied carbon of 221 tonnes, a cumulative 13% betterment of acknowledged industry baselines.
By collaborating with the project consultants, the team have been able to take the guess work out of the earliest stages of the project. This has ensured a cost-efficient solution to not only the building design but to the end user and the net zero carbon issue.
