Project Outline

The Enterprise Centre at The University of East Anglia, dubbed by the press as the UK's greenest building, has been designed and delivered to achieve the Passivhaus standard and a BREEAM outstanding rating. The new university building aims to encourage new sustainable businesses from graduates who emerge from its academic research programme and those involved in activities within the wider Norwich Research Park.

The Enterprise Centre provides space for business support workshops, networking activities, open plan offices, incubation and hatchery space (research and development activities) for new graduate startup companies and other businesses in the Knowledge Economy. The building also provides a base for business support through the University’s Low Carbon MBA and associated graduate development and entrepreneurship programmes operated by the Norwich Business School.

The Concept

The concept comprises a new building and landscape that is an exemplar of low embodied energy and carbon construction technologies, through the use of natural and bio-renewable materials sourced through local supply chains. The Enterprise Centre is a recognised centre of excellence at a European level, providing world-class facilities through its sustainable design and use of materials.

Rationale

The building is an important element of the demonstration, awareness and bespoke support process; providing live and historical data of the performance of renewable materials in a format that is industry standard. By being able to physically see the materials and data change over time and understand the impacts, this is the 1st international building to offer Passivhaus performance alongside renewable materials.

Embodied within it is a range of carbon monitoring systems, which show the impacts on energy efficiency and carbon offsetting. Floors, walls and ceilings are exposed so that the configuration of the installed materials can be readily demonstrated. New materials can be substituted over time to provide up to date knowledge of materials, which have recently been introduced. The building has become a key element in the University’s estate master plan.

Process

The Enterprise Centre has been delivered using a forward thinking 'Single Point Delivery' (SPD) form of contract for all work stages (based on NEC3), that promotes collaborative working practice, with main contractor Morgan Sindall as the Single Point Deliverer.

To meet the requirements of the brief, we designed the building to meet a 100 year design life, Passivhaus certification and BREEAM Outstanding. The building also exceeds the local planning requirement for 10% of the building’s energy to be from renewables through the use of roof mounted PVs. Embodied energy has been a major focus at design stage. The design is well above Best Practice, with embodied carbon (including sequestration) between 1/5 and 1/4 of many new university buildings.

Landscaping is a critical component of our scheme. We have reinforced the link with the historic gardens of Earlham Hall, retained many of the existing landscape features, including the beech hedge, and incorporated new landscape features such as the central courtyard, an echo of other adjacent courtyards, featuring a beautiful flint SUDs bed surrounding the main lecture theatre.

Consultation Process

We have undertaken a signification amount of consultation and engagement which has underpinned the development of the project, alongside the team's thorough commitment to collaborative working. This has occurred at many different levels, from intimate sessions with the user client, to large stakeholder workshops and numerous engagements with Norwich City Council Planning Authority, Conservation Officers, Greater Norwich Development Partnership Design Review Panel, Highway and Parks and Open Spaces Committees, as part of the formal pre-application process. The process also included an exhibition of the proposed designs through August 2012, where members of the community were invited to comment on the proposals, and a presentation was given to the Norwich Forum for the Construction Industry.

In terms of consultation and engagement with the UEA, there has been
 a structured series of intensive workshops, which have involved a large number of user group representatives in addition to the clientside project team and design team. This has included staff from Estates, Adapt Low Carbon Group, Teaching and Learning, Space Management, Cleaning Services, Careers, Research and Enterprise, Inclusion, Maintenance, IT Infrastructure, Grounds Staff, Sustainability and Biodiversity and also student representation.

The workshops looked at all aspects of the masterplan and designs across both sites, and included specific workshops on elements such as landscape, teaching and learning spaces, catering, the enterprise spaces, the demonstration and exhibition area, servicing and inclusive design.

As part of this process of engagement, and to ensure that the building properly meets the needs of users at each design stage, the project utilised a DQI (Design Quality Indicator) process to record user consultation and is also following BSRIA’s Soft Landings Framework.

Shading Analysis

Architype has undertaken a design study of shading The Enterprise Centre to work out the optimal level of shading to improve internal comfort. Through a range of analysis, general outcomes have concluded; the need for adaptable shading based on predicted weather patterns across the UK in the future and a variable shade height above the window opposed to a variable shade length as this proves to be more cost effective. The analysis has also highlighted the need to slightly re-think the allocation of South facing windows deemed essential by Passivhaus and consider the internal heat gains in parallel.

Likewise, analysis concluded high material mass to be effective for controlled heat gains, however not at the expense of LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), in response we have opted for a low carbon, high mass solution.

Future Climate data

Future Climate data was generated for the project by the University of East Anglia Climate Team. With this information a range of design scenarios were simulated in PHPP (Passivhaus Planning Package) to identify the most robust solution over an 87 year period. The lifecycle carbon study, including embodied carbon, allowed optimisation of the building mass, glazing ratios, shading and natural ventilation design. Sensitivity analysis was carried out for both a warming and cooling scenario.