Hulley & Kirkwood have been working with GCP Chartered Architects on detailed design projects at Bristol Water’s headquarters office building for over 10 years.

The latest project involved the complete internal refurbishment and extension of the office building and ancillary spaces, as the old office space was dated and suffered from very poor internal environmental conditions. The project also provided additional space into which personnel from satellite offices have been re-located.

The original 1960’s building comprised 2 storeys of accommodation in one single block; the original block was extended over both storeys at the rear of the building during a 5 phase refurbishment over a 3 year period whilst the building was still occupied by the staff and support teams.

In addition to the refurbishment of the office space, the works included a large new data centre which provides the data and communications for the whole of Bristol Water's critical operational systems. The data centre was the first phase of the refurbishment project as it needed to be moved to its’ new location whilst remaining operational throughout, with no break in service.

The data centre was equipped with high capacity chilled water cooled down flow units which operate on a n+1 basis. The M&E engineering for the data centre was value engineered to ensure  that the systems were future-proofed for an anticipated increase in cooling loads and ensuring that single points of failure were designed out, whilst keeping a close eye on the capital expenditure.

The building is also now equipped with a central atrium café area which was developed from the infill of a central courtyard area which was originally unusable space.

As part of the final solution, Hulley & Kirkwood modelled and demonstrated that an exposed soffit with a mixed mode ventilation system prioritising external air to cool and control CO2 levels, coupled with refrigerant heat pumps to ‘cut off’ higher temperatures was the most efficient, economical and compliant solution to satisfy the client's brief.

Alongside the use of high efficiency lighting and efficient building controls, the infrastructure  for a series of photovoltaic panels was installed on the roof in order to maximise the building's environmental credentials.

Gallery