News
March 28 2011
Hive of activity as foundations laid for growth in low carbon economy
Designed by multi-disciplinary practice Pick Everard, construction of the £2.6million SmartLIFE Low Carbon resources centre, that will help speed up growth of the low carbon economy in the East of England, is moving ahead quickly. Contractor Kier Marriott will have the steel frame up by the end of this month (March), with completion scheduled for October 2011.
A joint venture between Cambridgeshire County Council and Cambridge Regional College, the SmartLIFE Low Carbon centre is part of The Hive, a larger multi-million pound education and enterprise park that will eventually include and SmartLIFE eco-homes park and Future Business Centre. The centre will offer dedicated business support facilities for low carbon enterprises as well as events and advice for local businesses making the transition to a low carbon economy.
Pick Everard project architect Eelin Loo explains, “The SmartLIFE Low Carbon centre has been designed to be a low impact and highly energy efficient building. Solar thermal water heating, highly efficient heat recovery systems, rainwater harvesting, solar shading, photovoltaic arrays for electricity generation and automated lighting are being installed to achieve a BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) ‘Excellent’ rating.”
The visual character of the building is strong, simple and modern. There are sharp, clean lines from contrasting anthracite fibre cement panels with light coloured profiled aluminium cladding. The magenta colour from the SmartLIFE logo is being used in building features to compliment the anthracite panel colour. There are 2 different blocks of accommodation housing flexible teaching spaces, research facilities plus meeting and seminar rooms for students and local businesses. The 3 storey block has ‘punched’ floor to ceiling windows for strong vertical emphasis and projecting window pods and screen walls for variety. Fibre cement cladding, laid in random coursing creates a vibrant façade and backlit polycarbonate on a prominent corner of the site will act as a ‘beacon’ and focal point of the new development.
The sawtooth roof profile of the second block, the Renewables Workshop, provides definition and allows for glazed north lights and photovoltaic cells and solar water panels on sloping south facing roofs. There are long horizontal windows at a high level with narrow slit windows for tutorial bays and external cladding will be profiled aluminium. Large areas of the external wall will be glazed to allow activities inside to be visible.
To improve local workforce skills, the centre will offer qualifications in six developing technology areas associated with low carbon homes and installing renewable energy solutions and modules in low carbon technologies to boost traditional skills training. To reduce the impact of CO2 locally, events will be held for home owners to learn about sustainable refurbishment and retro-fitting of renewable energy systems to existing properties.
The SmartLIFE Low Carbon centre is located on a 1.92acre site north of Cambridge city centre on King Hedges Road, adjacent to Cambridge Regional College between the Science Park Campus and Orchard Park.
Pick Everard is a multi-disciplinary practice with its head office in Leicester and 7 regional offices in Bury St Edmunds, Derby, Glasgow, Inverness, London, Nottingham and Taunton.
