Innovative building services systems, designed by engineering, environment and design consultancy Sweco, have contributed to the design of Bloomberg’s new European headquarters being named as the world’s highest BREEAM-rated office building.
The development, located in the City of London, has achieved a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating, with a 98.5 per cent score – the highest design-stage score ever achieved by any major office development.
Sweco was appointed by Bloomberg in 2010 to provide building services consultancy, including fire engineering and vertical transportation, for the Foster + Partners landmark project. Sweco’s contributions include a number of ‘firsts’ in UK building services design.
A water-saving vacuum drainage system – the first on this scale in the UK – will contribute to a 73 per cent saving in water consumption and a new smart airflow system, which distributes air according to the occupancy of the building, is set to save 600-750 MWhr of power per year.
The vacuum drainage system will recycle 100 per cent of the building’s greywater from basins and showers, eliminating the use of mains water for toilet flushing. Overall, the building’s water conservation systems will save 25 million litres of water each year – enough to fill ten Olympic swimming pools.
The smart airflow system will reduce carbon emissions by approximately 300 metric tonnes each year by using CO2 sensors to dynamically adjust airflow in the building in response to occupancy patterns.
Trevor Farnfield, design director for the project at Sweco UK, said: “Few commercial developments truly earn the title of ‘landmark building’, but Bloomberg’s European HQ is an exception – setting a new precedent for sustainable design.
“This was a long-term, challenging project to which we have brought international best practice from across the Sweco group to deliver an innovative approach to building services.
“The project has already attracted significant attention from the international design community, making it a landmark reference project not only for Bloomberg but also the City of London.”
Sweco also designed the building’s on-site Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generation centre, which is expected to save 500-750 metric tonnes of CO2 per year, with the waste heat being directly used within the building.
In March 2017 Sweco UK was named as the BREEAM Assessor Company of the year for a third time, in recognition of its success in embedding sustainability within building design. The Bloomberg building is one of seven commercial buildings designed by Sweco to achieve BREEAM ‘Outstanding’, including Five St Pancras Square, home of Camden Council, and Seven More London Riverside, the UK headquarters of PWC.
