We worked with Grayling Thomas Architects to develop a new business school building for Barton Peveril college. The building is located at the front of the college on a former car park and between three existing buildings, and so the site was quite constrained. The M&E was a contractor designed portion and so we remained on the client side for detailed design and construction.
To meet the planning requirement of a 15% improvement on carbon emissions over building regulations, and also BREEAM Excellent, the building is heated by a ground source heat pump with boreholes in a nearby sports field and electricity import is reduced as there is a 47kWp PV array on the roof. Though a fabric first approach was adopted to help reduce the reliance on renewable plant to achieve the planning requirement. Our building physics team carried out modelling during RIBA stage 2 to assess the building fabric as well as renewable sources. This identified that an improvement in U-values in the region of 50% over building regulations, which was agreed as achievable with the architect, would provide an optimum solution.
Nazrin Shah Building, Worcester College
The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre within Worcester College is a new building housing a large lecture theatre, a student learning space, seminar rooms and a dance studio. The project is not simply the provision of new facilities, but also the development and enhancement of the setting of this significant part of the College site.
The building has been designed as a theatre in a garden. It is raised on a podium. A curved stone auditorium opens directly onto an oak-ceilinged foyer that extends out to pergolas and terraces overlooking the cricket pitch. It can operate either as a fully enclosed, darkened environment or as a bright day lit space surrounded by gardens on all sides. The dance studio stands at the end of a long serpentine lake that connects it back to the ancient heart of the College.
CBG were employed by the mechanical sub-contractor to complete the mechanical design. This included undertaking the thermal modelling & coordination with ground source heat pumps.
Oxford Preservation Trust Awards 2018 – Winner
RIBA South Award 2018 – Winner
RIBA South Building of the Year 2018 – Winner
RIBA National Award 2018 – Winner
RIBA Stirling Prize 2018 – Shortlisted
Knights Park, Kingston University’s Faculty of Art
The Kingston University’s Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture is recognised as one of the best art and design schools in the teaching and research world. In order to maintain this world reputation the facilities have been subjected to a major upgrade and extension to provide over 10000sqm of refurbished creative space.
A significant proportion of the redesign was devoted to a much-needed untangling and rethinking of how space is used within the school. Courses have been rejoined and grouped by mutual requirements leading to workshops and studio spaces being open for creative exploration and allowing students and staff to share ideas. The building is now a ‘layer cake’ of creative production with the ground floor housing a vast 3D workshop, the first floor a 2D workshop and the layers above providing lively home studios for design courses, with views across Kingston.
The most significant element of the comprehensive overhaul was the 1970s Mill Street Building, which has gone largely untouched since it was built and much of the internal building fabric had reached the end of its life. All services have been replaced and upgraded to the latest energy efficiency standards, works were completed in a phased approach whilst the building remained fully operational.
The project achieved BREEAM Outstanding and delivered a 52% reduction in operational carbon emissions. Fabric enhancements included replacing patent glazing with a new high-performance glazing system, increased insulation and airtightness and the complete replacement of 50-year-old heating and ventilation systems.
NLA Awards – Highly Commended, Mayor’s Prize for Circular Design
AJ Retrofit Award 2021 – Winner
BREEAM Awards 2021, Public Sector Project: Post Construction – Winner
Images supplied by Philip Vile & Haworth Tompkins
Café and Sixth Form Centre, Shiplake College
Shiplake College is an Independent boarding/day school located on a 45 acre beautifully landscaped site, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
The school’s determination to deliver quality education has led them to plan and build new facilities, expanding the quality educational environment to be both environmentally friendly, and cost effective.
CBG Consultants were engaged to work alongside Nicolas Brown Webber Architects on the design of a new café and Sixth Form Centre in the heart of the College, the site was originally used infrequently as an overflow car park.
The building has been designed to be timeless whilst nestling perfectly into the surroundings. The ground floor houses a small sixth form café and servery which opens out on to a sunny deck. Upstairs are two classrooms and two small seminar rooms accessed via an external stair under an oak-framed roof.
Brunel University’s Uxbridge campus was constructed in the 1960s, with a strong focus on the sciences and engineering. The site has grown and developed over the years, now accommodating more than 12,000 students. CBG Consultants are on the current M&E consultancy services framework.
The Quad North building is one of the original ones on campus, housing a mixture of laboratories, teaching spaces, offices, and engineering workshops. Our involvement dates to 2019, when we undertook stock condition surveys of the site. Following on from that, we commenced a strategy exercise to determine how the building could be remodelled to accommodate new departments. This had to be done while other parts remained in use, necessitating a phased approach.
The strategy was adopted by the team, and site works are about to commence for the first phase of the project. The majority of spaces are all to be refurbished to varying degrees, with a new anatomy suite to be provided, and new research laboratories fully compliant with current best practice. The project has been designed as a full BIM one, using Revit software. This has proven essential for the coordination of new services installations within a congested and complex building.
Images: Wilson Mason
Restaurant & Apartments Conversion, Lincoln College
CBG Consultants were delighted to deliver this prestigious development for Lincoln College on Oxford High Street.
The project involved the conversion of a Grade II Listed former bank dating from 1866, into a new restaurant and upmarket apartments. The team were keen to restore and retain period features, such as an original ceiling discovered in the banking hall that was previously concealed. Bespoke M&E services strategies were developed to maximise the historic appeal of the spaces.
New services were provided throughout, including construction of a new lift. We designed the shell and core scheme and acted as technical advisors for Lincoln College, to review the proposed restaurant fitout by The Ivy. We worked closely with their fitout team to ensure mechanical and electrical services strategies were developed that would work within the confines of the site and defined tenant demises. Control of odours from cooking was a particular concern, with a scheme to mitigate these. The location of plant near to residential units required close scrutiny of acoustic performance also. Future maintenance and plant replacement strategies were developed and included within the Agreement for Lease.
Full design was undertaken for the apartments, with lighting, electrical services and air conditioning developed to a high standard specification. The residential development includes a new feature stair with bespoke suspended lighting, which links to the existing Alfred Street apartments.
Oxford Preservation Trust 2020, Building Conservation Category – Certificate
Its unique site on the river Cherwell was designed by Powell and Moya, and completed in 1974. The architectural integrity has been carefully preserved, recognised by its Grade II Listed status.
CBG Consultants were selected to undertake the careful remodelling and refurbishment of the Buttery, stripping back more recent interventions to provide a high quality multi-function space.
A bespoke lighting system was developed with Spectral Lighting, with profiles created to exactly fit the exposed concrete structural bays. Colour temperature can be varied to suit different times of day and uses of the space, using a simple touch screen system. A high quality Audio Visual system is concealed within the timber panelling and slatted ceiling, and makes the facility attractive for external lettings. New mechanical ventilation, heating and domestic water services have been provided, together with a fully refurbished servery.
Oxford Preservation Trust 2020, Small Projects Category – Plaque Winner
CBG Consultants were appointed by Christ Church, for the phased renovation of the Cathedral in 2017.
Dating from the 12th Century, the Grade I Listed Cathedral was last rewired in the mid 1990s. A proposed project to clean and restore the high level building fabric gave the opportunity to renew electrical distribution and the lighting installation, which had become dated.
We worked closely with the lighting designers Sutton Vane Associates, and Purcell Architects, to develop the new electrical infrastructure proposals. This had to be installed over several phases of work whilst the Cathedral remained in use. Much of the servicing of the building is done using the high-level clerestory walkways. While these provide a convenient route, they also pose a risk to maintenance personnel, with access available only with safety harnesses to two people at a time. We developed a scheme to minimise the need to access these walkways, by locating the drivers and power supplies for the lighting system in central locations away from the clerestories. These are more likely to require future maintenance than the light fittings themselves.
Queen Street and St Aldate’s, Oxford – Student Accommodation
The project included the construction of over 130 en-suite student bedrooms, overlooking the historic Carfax Tower in the centre of Oxford. Bedrooms are grouped into clusters, with communal kitchen/diners. Other facilities include a gym, cinema, and social spaces.
The five storey building was constructed on a constrained site, with the original façade of the St Aldates elevation retained. In addition to the student accommodation, the ground floor incorporates three large retail units with street frontages.
The student accommodation is partly managed by Christ Church, with the remainder directly let on the market. Services and circulation routes are zoned accordingly.
2018 Oxford Preservation Trust Winner
Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine
CBG Consultants were engaged by Oxford University Estates Services to undertake comprehensive refurbishment of Mechanical services, Plant and fan coils in the building which is located on the John Radcliffe Hospital site in Oxford. We subsequently undertook a refurbishment and re-organisation of the ground floor to incorporate a new Bioinformatics research suite.
The three main sponsors of research in the Institute are the University of Oxford, The Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. Significant funding came from the Wellcome Trust and other medical research charities. The completed facility provides high quality research facilities to progress the bioinformatics research programme.
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