Architect: Bradshaw Gass and Hope
Project Role: Structural engineering
The Media Centre, a five-storey framed building which has been designed to provide starter office units to new businesses within the media sector, forms phase three of an already successful initiative.
The £5m development, which has created 52 new spaces for the media centre, is clad in a dual layer façade. This is integral to the successful operation of the ventilation strategy developed to minimise the use of harmful gases normally associated with air conditioned offices.
The building has been designed and built to achieve a Very Good BREEAM rating, and uses a reinforced concrete frame to create an exposed flat soffit which helps expose the thermal mass of the building and increase the performance of the natural cooling system.
With the majority of the concrete frame exposed, careful detailing and co-ordination with the design team was required to ensure that the frame achieved the correct aesthetic, and functioned efficiently with the building’s heating and ventilation strategy.
Using natural ground water instead of harmful CFC’s to temper the air allowed cool air to be drawn through the ducts set into the office floors. The air was then drawn through natural actions into the dual layered façade.
The eco buffer zone within the façade was designed as a steel frame which gains support from the primary concrete frame and uses open meshed floor to allow for natural air flow and for the LED lighting system to light the façade during the night.
The building was opened by the Queen during her visit to Huddersfield in May 2007.