Project Title: Fairfield House, Midlothian Council
Project Value: £4m
Hulley contact: Michael O'Donnell
This project provides 3,500m² of modern Office accommodation for 250 Administration Support Staff who support the Council Headquarters operations located in other Buildings nearby. The Client Officers set a Brief which required a non-air conditioned/’Green’ Building solution. The Architects and ourselves evolved a solution which was based on a previous intensive study for a similar larger Building at New Edinburgh. Arising from this earlier Design and Costing Study, we understood the key design parameters required to find an effective solution for Fairfield House. This particular Project won a BCO Regional Award in 1999.
The solution which evolved incorporated the following features, amongst many others, and recognised that the building location is in a quiet walled garden setting, allowing natural ventilation to be used effectively. The two storey building incorporates two 12m deep floorplates around a central Atrium/Street which contains internal stairways to enable good physical communications. The main provision of natural ventilation is from the motorised rooflights over the Atrium which operates under thermostatic and time control. The actuators are electronically controlled and link directly to the BMS allowing the control loops to be ‘tuned’ to meet actual occupancy needs. The reinforced concrete soffit has been specially modelled and has a high quality surface finish which provides a very attractive appearance. The soffit is lit by suspended uplighters which also incorporate acoustic panels to control background noise levels. The exposed soffits are used in conjunction with night ventilation through the rooflights to pre-cool the structure prior to occupancy in a night free cooling mode. (This approach follows the successful Powergen HQ Project and was based on the Design Study for the New Edinburgh Park building. To meet comfort needs during cold windy winter weather and to combat higher internal temperatures expected in hot summer weather, a mixed mode supplementary mechanical ventilation system is provided. his is a variable air volume displacement ventilation system (VAV-DV) which operates under BMS control to provide minimum tempered warm fresh air to meet ventilation needs in winter, increasing to maximum flow to provide free cooling fresh air inputs during mid-season and summer under thermostatic control.
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