Client: Chelsfield LLP.

Location: Southwark, London

Status: Planning Pending

Overview

Chelsfield wished to commission a new commercial office building beside the Tate modern for multi tenanted use to institutional Cat A standards; however they wished to develop an exemplar building that was as close to Carbon Zero in its construction and running costs. This was visionary at that point to see the need for a truly sustainable ‘green’ building, albeit it had to be built at the same cost as any comparable, non-green’ office.

The solution was to utilise greenery and a series of computer controlled venting systems to cool and freshen the air on a continuous cycle. The hot stale air rose to the ceilings where, with negative pressure created by external air currents the air would pass into a double façade, rise to the roof where a forest of evergreen trees within a two storey winter garden would de-ionise and cool the air. Freshened and cooled, it would then drop through vents to be distributed into high-mass ‘trombe’ concrete floors to cool the interior through radiation.