
Solstice Park, a £250 million development on a 160 acre (65
hectare) site, is one of the largest mixed-use business parks in central Southern
England. Strategically located adjacent to the A303 trunk road, Solstice Park
provides unrivalled transport links. Find out more www.thecrescentoffices.com
Sunstone Construction Ltd were appointed main Design & Build Contractor to construct the C2 Office Development on Solstice Park.
The design and construction of the buildings has focused on low energy solutions that were conceived on the basis of avoiding the need for comfort cooling/air conditioning, thereby minimising the carbon footprint, energy consumption and energy costs. The principle features of the buildings from this respect are:-
Natural ventilation of the office areas
Solar control glass to help limit the effects of direct solar heat gains, enhanced by summertime passive night cooling of the structure
Heating by gas fired condensing boiler plant with weather compensating controls
Low energy lighting incorporating automatic occupancy sensing switching and automatic dimming to take advantage of natural day-lighting
Effective building air tightness
As well as enabling the buildings to achieve a level of performance that satisfies the latest Building Regulations (Part L, 2006), the incorporation of such a design philosophy should enable the buildings to achieve 'Good Practice' energy ratings, as listed in the Carbon Trust 'Best Practice Programme' publication ECG 19 'Energy Use in Offices'. This should result in the annual energy consumption and carbon emissions being just 30% of a comparable 'typical' air conditioned building.
On completion of the buildings, independent air permeability tests (a measure of there air tightness with all windows and doors closed) have shown the buildings to be better than the 'best practice' levels described in the British Council for Offices Guide 2005 - Best Practice in the Specification for Offices.
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