In a first for the city and the West Midlands, Three Chamberlain Square, the latest commercial building at Paradise Birmingham, has achieved a ‘BREEAM Outstanding’ rating at design stage.
As the first office building in the region to achieve the rating, it is striving to become one of the most sustainable buildings in the UK when it completes in 2025.
Badged ‘the code for a sustainable built environment,’ the internationally recognised and third-party BREEAM certification has been a global driver of sustainability in the built environment for the past 30 years.
BREEAM Outstanding is the top-level ranking, achieved by less than 1% of new non domestic buildings, and requires careful planning of each process during the design, procurement, construction, and delivery phase of the building.
From the very outset of the design process for Three Chamberlain Square, MEPC has set out to deliver one of the UK’s most sustainable buildings with a low embodied and operational carbon design.
With an emphasis on natural light, ventilation and smart technologies, the building’s emphasis reflects the increasing expectations of wellbeing within the modern workplace and will remain sustainable throughout its design, construction and operational life cycle.
The building will also offer more than 200 cycle spaces and dedicated changing facilities and storage, in addition to all electric power and heating, with no use of fossil fuels within everyday operation.
The BREEAM recognition follows the official start on site last month. A string of milestones will come forward later this year as the project moves forward at pace and the building begins to take its place on the city’s skyline.
Designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBStudios), Three Chamberlain Square is a radical statement for the city.
The 189,000 sq ft space will be a first for Birmingham in terms of environmental standards and is being built by construction and engineering contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, which also completed neighbouring One Centenary Way earlier this year.
Ross Fittall of Paradise Birmingham development and asset managers, MEPC, said: ‘The achievement of BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ at this early stage of Three Chamberlain Square is a great reflection of the project team’s commitment to the sustainability agenda as part of our drive towards a net zero future for the whole of Paradise.
‘We’re very proud to be leading the way in setting new environmental standards for the workspace of the future. The building’s design is centred around the three principles of sustainability, wellbeing and place and incorporates a low carbon future for its occupiers from the very start alongside an inside-outside ethos of external views, natural light, opening windows and biophilia.’
The project team responsible for delivering the building and achieving the early BREEAM certification includes FCBStudios, Cundall, Faithful + Gould, Carbon.Climate.Certified and SRM. Construction of the building started on site in May 2023.
Three Chamberlain Square is the fourth commercial building to be delivered at Paradise and follows the completion of One Centenary Way at the start of 2023 which together with the new hotel and new public realm, will complete the work associated with Phase Two of the development.
As an important contributor to regional growth, Paradise is committed to creating high quality, new pedestrian streets and squares for everyone to enjoy, as well as improving wider pedestrian and public transport links across the city. Early work on the access and transport links around Paradise were supported by Greater Birmingham Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP).
Paradise has already completed phase one of the development with One Chamberlain Square wholly occupied by PwC and Two Chamberlain Square providing some of the best views in Birmingham, with stunning vistas across Chamberlain Square itself and of the city’s impressive Classical and Victorian civic architecture. Dishoom, Rosa’s Thai Café and Albert’s Schloss will be joined by the latest leisure operators, Yorks Café and F1® Arcade later this year.