The low carbon, sustainable design of the Paris 2024 Aquatics Centre will help halve the Olympics’ carbon footprint compared with London 2012. Andy Pearson looks at the passive-first design and the lasting legacy of the Games’ only new venue
Category: Case Studies
Out of site: modular heat pump solutions
With site accommodation contributing significantly to construction projects’ carbon footprints, engineers on a £227m residential scheme at Wembley Park have come up with a modular heat pump solution that cut operation carbon by 14 tonnes in six months, as Solaris Energy’s Daniel Large explains to Andy Pearson
Case study: Manchester’s garden of Eden
Wellbeing is at the core of Manchester’s Eden building, which features the biggest green wall in Europe and has been designed to ensure tenants have the potential to achieve Well Certification. Andy Pearson finds out how wellbeing and sustainability were baked into the design
Case study: Passivhaus Plus Hackbridge Primary School
Hackbridge Primary is the first Passivhaus Plus-certified school, setting a new standard for sustainable design and operational efficiency. Andy Pearson talks to members of the project team about the award-winning scheme
Keeping fit with less energy: Ravelin Sports Centre
Designers behind the Ravelin Sports Centre have crunched its energy-use numbers down to an impressive 87kWh·m-2 per year, less than half that required to achieve a DEC ‘A’ rating. Andy Pearson discovers how an innovative mix of passive and active technologies produced a sector-leading building that won a CIBSE Building Performance Award
Science in the city: the challenge of retrofitting labs
Empty retail space in the UK is attracting the attention of the booming life sciences sector. Cundall’s Rob van Zyl looks at the trend for retrofitting laboratories and, in particular, the challenge of ventilating them in built-up areas
Bridging the gap: the 2024 CIBSE Building Performance Champion
SGA Consulting was crowned CIBSE’s Building Performance Champion following the retrofit of the historic York Guildhall. Andy Pearson explains how the project team exploited the nearby River Ouse while protecting the listed site
Essential lessons from electric schools
Too many all-electric schools are being designed for peak loads that will never be met, says Cundall’s Peter Hazzard, who has been analysing data from previous designs to slash electrical demand
Setting the scene: Manchester’s new arts venue Aviva Studios
Manchester’s new arts venue, Aviva Studios, features two huge events spaces that can host anything from poetry readings to mega-raves. BDP had the challenge of devising a flexible lighting and services strategy that could adapt to any artistic situation, as the consultant’s Steve Merridew and Nick Meddows explain
Going with the flow: how improved design can lead to better roof drainage
Traditional roofs in Japan were designed to deflect rainwater away from a building and these types of roof forms are an elegant and sustainable alternative to the pipework and guttering used now. Jake Cherniayeff says a performance-based design approach can achieve similar drainage strategies on modern buildings