O’Connor Sutton Cronin M&E  was appointed by Spear Street Capital as Mechanical, Electrical and Sustainability/Energy Engineers on the project. In developing a design for the new and exciting project we were tasked with meeting the client’s three main Requirements; (1) Innovation, (2) Sustainability and (3) Low future maintenance.

Our commission as per the client’s brief was to introduce inspiring meeting areas which positively impacted the sustainability goals for the business park. The design was to be innovative, but easily replicated, self-sufficient in terms of energy requirements, with low future maintenance and low embodied carbon of materials.

Instead of creating a large, consolidated building, initial studies were carried out to explore the potential of decentralising the meeting room approach, minimising the environmental impact and optimising the user experience. This involved a full analysis of the M&E design, with full consideration on bringing services to the pods.

The final design for the sustainable meeting room pods harness renewable energy design and includes the following features :

> Solar PV panels on each pod roof converting solar energy into electricity.
> Axial wind turbine converting wind power into electricity.
> Battery storage device to store excess renewable energy.
> Maximised glazing to amplify daylight and reduce artificial lighting.
> External shading louvres to limit artificial cooling.

> Natural ventilation to reduce mechanical ventilation.
> Highly insulated thermal envelope to decrease space heating needs.
> Electrical Metering to monitor energy usage.
> Sustainable materials – Low embodied carbon
> Electrically heated concrete floor utilises thermal mass for temperature control