The gleaming office block with its air-conditioning units nestling in its ceilings is usually an environmental disaster zone. Sean Cronin reports on new health-enhancing regulations
For most office workers, the sight of a slightly confused-looking heating and ventilating engineer standing on a step ladder and gazing towards the ceiling is a familiar part of the summertime workplace.
While the UK has led the world in the architecture and construction of landmark buildings, the art of keeping them warm in winter and cool in summer has somehow always evaded it.
The British, it seems, have never been very good at air-conditioning. Yet this could soon change with the arrival last month of new building regulations, which are set to transform both the look and the feel of all new office buildings.
The innocuous sounding Part L of the Building Regulations for England and Wales has been updated to include tough new energy efficiency targets which are aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 1.4m tonnes of carbon by 2010.
The revised parts L1 and L2 of the regulations have taken more than three years to compile, and their impact on office construction will be anything but innocuous.
Focusing on energy efficiency and thermal insulation requirements in buildings, they set higher standards for the conservation of fuel and power.
They will also put another 5-10% on the cost of office construction, which will test the commercial viability of many planned buildings. This is likely to be particularly pertinent to speculative development.
Developers and building contractors have awaited the coming of Part L as if it were a particularly ominous Nostradamus prophecy.
Occupiers should be cheered by the prospect of reduced energy bills, which are expected to be up to 25% lower than in traditionally constructed buildings.
But they will also be burdened with a new responsibility to record energy usage and carbon emissions, and retain this information in log-books.
This requirement is widely expected to kickstart a more holistic approach to energy conservation on the part of occupiers generally.
Part L regulations could signal the demise of the dramatic glass-fronted fa!ade, which has been so characteristic of office construction over the past decade.
“In some cases, the fully glazed fa!ade could be a thing of the past, as it won’t perform efficiently enough within the parameters of the regulations,” says GVA Grimley partner Paul Watson.
A big rethink
Traditional glazing forms and patterns are now being completely rethought as a result of Part L, largely because glass more than any other building component is often responsible for unnecessary heat loss and gain.
Ask any heating and ventilating engineer why the office air-conditioning is broke and they will probably point dejectedly to the windows and say “it’s their fault”.
And to some extent, it is. The gleaming angular office block may be an icon of the modern marketplace, but it is also usually an environmental disaster zone.
Inefficient glazing and cladding systems have been partly responsible for this failure, and environmental concerns have until now played second fiddle to aesthetic impact.
The introduction of the revised building regulations will effectively reverse that relationship.
Bob Keenan, technical expert at architectural and planning practice Sheppard Robson, says: “Critical design decisions about a building envelope will have to be made early in the design process.
“If for example, the aesthetics of an all glass facade are required, important decisions have to be made early in the design process about the orientation of the fa!ade and building, the use of solar shading and the need perhaps to employ double-skin fa!ade technology.”
Solar shading
External louvred shading will almost certainly become a familiar sight on large south-facing buildings, according to James Tinkler, an associate within the King Sturge project management team.
“We are likely to see more solar shading on offices. You can also put a film on the glass, which is cheaper but not as attractive, so horizontal louvres will probably become more popular.”
The new factors in building design which Part L has ushered in could also affect how developers weigh up the pros and cons of new build versus refurbishment.
Particular attention is being paid to the conversion of 1960s buildings which may now become more difficult to convert into fully compliant buildings. The glazing, cladding and floorplate requirements associated with the updated Part L requirements could make it expensive for developers to strip back to the core and re-clad.
“The use of 1960s buildings in the past involved stripping back to the frame and re-cladding the structure, but the regulations will make it more onerous.
“Whereas planning restrictions on site densities for new build have prompted some developers to take a shortcut by re-cladding older buildings, it might now be more difficult to re-clad within the parameters of the new building regulations,” says Watson.
Whether or not this turns out to be the case, it seems clear that both the interior and exterior of this new generation of buildings will demand more intricate planning at an early stage of design.
It remains to be seen if the updated regulations succeed in making the modern office block a more habitable place, but then as any heating and ventilating engineer knows, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
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The main changes |
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Outline of regulations |
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” Significantly increased standards of insulation of the building fabric, including windows, ducting and pipework. ” New standards for detailed design and site workmanship to achieve improved thermal performance. ” Extended definition of a “controlled service” to include any service or fitting covered by the Part L (in addition to parts G, H and J) ” New air-tightness standards enforced by mandatory pressure testing in buildings over 1,000m2. ” Compulsory commissioning of services and provision of user information about services. ” Higher performance standards for avoiding solar overheating, for boiler efficiency, for heating and hot water systems, for some light fittings and display lamps. ” New calculation procedures based on the building’s potential carbon emissions. ” Installation of energy consumption meters as well as sub-metering for sublet zones within the building. ” Requirements for energy consuming services to be provided with log-books. |
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Part L1 and L2 of the building regulations |
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Scotland and Northern Ireland |
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The equivalent of the regulations in Scotland is the sixth amendment to the 1990 Building Technical Standards, which came into force on 4 March. The Scottish equivalent of Approved Documents L1 and L2 is Part J, Conservation of Fuel and Power. The recent changes to Part J in the sixth amendment are similar to the changes in approved documents L1 and L2. In Northern Ireland, the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000, Part F: “Conservation of fuel and power”, which came into force on 1 April 2001, apply. |
