Hulley and Kirkwood

Project Title: University of Strathclyde - Institute for Bio-Medical Science

Client: University of Strathclyde

Project Value: £7.6m

Hulley contact: Simmy Telfer

The building is, to some degree, a product of a very congested site on a city campus location but the use of a passive solar wall provides a low energy design approach which maximises the use of solar energy.

A key feature is to recognise that even in a relatively narrow plan building the need for make-up supply ventilation is essential, to compensate for fume extract through the laboratory fume cupboards. A novel feature here is the use of fabric diffuser/ducts to supply low velocity make-up air as an innovation response to space, cost and comfort needs.

This is a building which has intensive engineering services to meet initial and future needs.  The key was to create a flexible design basis for the M&E and the structure to allow the future addition of services with minimum disruption.  The solar wall void supports this approach, providing a large, accessible service void to allow easy future routing of additional services.  From the outset the building form and services were driven by the needs of the building functions and the future expectation of change in demands for services.