High quality energy, maritime and engineering teaching facilities to prepare students for roles in industry

Energy Skills Centre

In support of the development of the regional economy in East Anglia and its energy, maritime and engineering industries, the new Energy Skills Centre was conceived as a state-of-the-art training facility using the latest technology, including a marine simulation suite, to equip people with the technical skills demanded by employers.

The team have delivered an excellent level of service across all professional disciplines. The team is dedicated, hard-working, reliable and prepared to go the extra mile.

Adri Van der Colff

Project Manager for East Coast College

Working on the project as architectural and building services designers and technical advisers, as well as providing cost management, we helped steer the project to a successful outcome, achieving KPI scores of 100% for both time and cost predictability, and 100% for client satisfaction.

At the outset, the college’s brief needed to be developed through detailed consultations to ensure we and the appointed contractor fully understood the specialist requirements of end users. This then necessitated cost reviews and value engineering exercises to adjust the scale and scope of designs to satisfy the college’s fixed budget.

Sustainability and operational efficiency were critical success factors, requiring a considered approach to design and whole life costing with reduced energy usage and carbon emissions over a 25-year period.

Although value engineering was required to satisfy the college’s budget, we protected the college’s brief by challenging proposals where we deemed cost savings did not represent overall value for money. An example of this can be found in our recommendation to reject a proposal to omit exposed feature trellis steelwork, since this was deemed to visually break up the mass of the building and provided a form of solar shading.

Using thermal and energy modelling, the design team was able to achieve a sustainable fabric first solution. This also allowed for the provision of heat pump sized to cater for each area of the building and minimise heat requirements at source. Photovoltaics and battery energy storage supply the heat pump for most of the year, and smart lighting and CO2 sensors moderate energy usage, further enhancing sustainability.