Building and the Environment

Key Project / Building information

The Campus will be an exemplar of sustainable construction, offering low energy and water consumption, sustainable materials throughout, biomass boilers, heat recovery from a ventilation plant and other measures designed to achieve low running costs and gain the highly regarded BREEAM excellence rating.

The low-profile building, occupying 15,500m² on a 12 acre site, will be set back from Waveney Drive, and the surrounding grounds will be landscaped in an environmentally sensitive manner. An attractive space with a public footpath along the restored waterfront is another feature of the proposed project.

The building’s distinctive facade will combine the use of metal and brick which will weather in an attractive way, with associated double glazed windows and glazed curtain walling. This palette may well change as the design evolves. The structure is made mainly from concrete to assist the natural ventilation, which is fundamental to the low energy design strategy for the project.

The BREEAM excellent rating (see www.breeam.org/index.jsp) will mean that at least 10% and preferably 15% of the Campus energy requirements will be met from zero and low carbon technologies.

Also at least 25% of the value of materials will be derived from recycled content. Meanwhile 100% of the wood used during construction and as part of the building must be from recycled and / or sustainable sources.