St Sidwell’s Point starts onsite : TClarke’s nationwide infrastructure leadership on display
23/6/20: As the UK prepares for years of infrastructure investment, TClarke teams are starting onsite delivering the full MEP installation for a new leisure centre that targets environmental standards so far ahead that standardised certification is not yet available. Rob Faro, Director UK South, explains:
St Sidwell’s Point in Exeter is a UK first for the Passivhaus standard (the leading international low energy design standard). No one has attempted the standard on this scale, in this country before.
An exceptional technical challenge
This is a major facility with three swimming pools, a gym, spin and dance studios. So it requires a multizone PHPP (Passivhaus Planning Package) model, taking into account cool and dry areas and warm and humid areas. The ventilation, heating and cooling systems need to be precisely controlled and monitored by the Building Management System to ensure the thermal comfort of occupants whilst minimising the energy use. Because of the higher quality of the build, humidity levels in the pool halls are allowed to be much higher, thus reducing the normally very high air change rates, reducing heating and ventilation costs.
Showcases our nationwide engineering excellence
Once again, we’re working with our long-term partner Kier and this project showcases our expertise in sustainability and energy efficiency. This is something we have been working on for several years with standards such as BREEAM, PassivHaus, Building Biology and Well. Within this business we have so much expertise in this field – in real engineering projects like this and 22 Bishopsgate.
Emma Osmundsen, Managing Director of Exeter City Living and a leading global voice in the delivery of low energy (passivhaus), healthy and climate resilient buildings commented: “Rob and the team at TClarke have been supporting Exeter City Council from the outset, even before the project was tendered by main contractors. Their sensible and practical approach, technical and cost advice has played an important part in this scheme and I am delighted to see them commence works on site to make this project a reality”.
TClarke delivers quality from every office
What is striking and exciting is that the engineering excellence required to deliver this kind of groundbreaking project can be found in our regional teams – here in the south west and equally across the UK. From Falkirk to Plymouth and from Liverpool to Newcastle, we can give clients and principal contractors the M&E resource they need to target new standards with complete confidence. There is much work to do and many challenges to overcome, but our TClarke teams are the best in the industry and this is a great project to work on.