Project Overview
ONE Creative environments (ONE) provided full engineering capabilities for this award-winning project including mechanical, electrical, civil and structural services for RIBA work stages 2 to 4 for the concept, detailed design (Tender Design) and construction stage monitoring duties.
Opened in 2019, the new-build care home in Shirley replaced an existing facility in the borough and provides the highest level of care to residents to allow them to live as independently as possible, regardless of their age or condition. The home provides 60 apartments, bistro/café, central seating area, multi-purpose room, laundry and administration offices.
With the client strongly focused on quality of care, sustainability and long-term investment to ensure an energy efficient building was delivered, ONE’s Mechanical & Electrical (M&E) team played a key role in the application of sustainable features with long term benefits in terms of cost and performance for both the owner and occupiers and, as required the project was successfully delivered to BIM Level 2.
The team incorporated guidance within the EPBD (Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) and NZEB (Nearly Zero Energy Buildings). Specifically, after a “fabric first” approach to the building with air permeability, other elements included a full roof of integrated solar photovoltaics generating up to 147kW/hr of electricity, reversible ground source heat pumps (GSHP) for both heating and active cooling applications with desuperheaters for hot water generation (approximately 215,000 kWh per annum of heat). Ground loops in excess of 100m deep allowed for passive cooling by rejecting the buildings heat into the ground during ideal conditions. All opportunities to improve the building’s sustainability were considered including ridge mounted wind turbines, solar hot water generation, passive underfloor cooling and adaptive shading while research into the DSDC Stirling University guides for dementia friendly lighting resulted in the use of circadian rhythm low energy LED lighting to mimic natural daylight patterns internally.
The result achieved for the client was a highly efficient building. By offering technology that provided payback over its lifespan i.e. GSHP and Photovoltaics, the initial capital costs could be stretched. This has resulted in a sizable reduction in carbon emissions emanating from the built environment and a standard which has been set for future developments of this kind with the local authority. This project was awarded Healthcare Estates’ Sustainable Achievement 2019 award.
Full M & E services were provided by One which included tender evaluation, site inspection and handover duties. In detail, services include:
- Incoming statutory supplies.
- External site services incl.lighting and watering points.
- Electrical distribution and small power installation.
- Fire alarm and smoke control systems.
- ICT services.
- Access control & CCTV.
- Nurse call and accessible alarm.
- Lighting and emergency lighting.
- Lightning protection.
- Domestic piped services.
- Heating and cooling (Underfloor heating).
- Ventilation, including commercial kitchen extract.
- Communal heating system (Heat Interface Units.
- Ground Source heat pump and solar PV.
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ONE’s Mechanical and Electrical Engineering team delivered our vision for a long-term energy efficient building as well as providing expert advice relating to the requirements of the dementia care sector.
Antonios Marinou, Architect / Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
