CBG consultants were employed by Birkbeck University to provide mechanical and electrical consultancy services for two projects at their Malet Street building in Central London.
The ground floor classroom remodel project consisted of the expansion and upgrade of 4 no. teaching spaces, including heating, ventilation, small power, data and lighting design. The existing spaces were refurbished and expanded to increase occupancies and offer teaching facilities to cater for an increased student intake. Challenging factors of the project included the implementation of localised mechanical ventilation to the spaces in lieu of the existing openable window strategy to cater for the increased occupancy in line with Part F of the building regulations. Perimeter dado trunking and distribution to integral desk sockets for small power and data was also designed.
The Fourth Floor IT suite project involved the refurbishment of existing teaching spaces to be reused as computer labs. Increased occupancy and change of use of the space meant the requirement for localised ventilation and cooling provisions along with a more complex small power and data design. CBG investigated the existing services provisions to check for potential re-use and any opportunity to strip out any redundant services as well as identifying feasible plant and riser space for a dedicated VRF cooling system to be installed.