Shiplake College is an Independent boarding/day school located on a 45 acre beautifully landscaped site, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. The College pride themselves on their strong rowing community and have produced no less than four Olympic medal winners.

The existing Boathouse consisted of various wooden sheds, each being used to house different types equipment and the boats themselves. The New Boathouse has been constructed as a two storey building, using a mixture of bricks and metal sheets as materials. The Ground floor has been designed to have enough space for a workshop, state of the art multi-purpose fitness and conditioning gym, bar and changing rooms in addition to Boat Storage. The first floor also has a rifle and archery shooting range, an indoor climbing wall and equipment storage for outdoor pursuits for the popular Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.

The Boathouse is an exemplar of the minimalist approach to renewable services design, employing a ground source heat pump using boreholes due to the size of the site and internal fan coil units for proving space cooling and heating. Insulation levels exceed building regulations to minimise the required GSHP installation size. The ventilation employs an MVHR heat recovery system using CO2 and PIR sensors for occupancy demand ventilation varying the flowrate according to usage. The scheme also makes use of opening rooflights for natural ventilation under suitable conditions. Lighting employs LEDs through to round out the complete low energy services installation.

Images – Nicolas Brown Webber Architects

Back to All Projects