10% the easy way?
Bennetts Associates is relying on designed-in sustainability, rather than renewables, for its refurbishment of Ashburton Court in Winchester. During the refurbishment the top floor of the buildings will be cut back, pedestrian bridges removed, and new one-storey buildings built at the centre of the block along a new internal street to house a reception area, a restaurant and café, an auditorium and meeting rooms. Analysis of the building’s concrete frame, slabs and foundations using Envest, the BRE’s Whole Lifecycle Environmental Impact Analysis software, showed that they comprise about half of the building’s embodied energy.
Winchester has not adopted a mandatory 10%, but rather a suggestion of renewables. After extensive analysis, Bennetts was able to demonstrate that the real issue was overall energy consumption, not the percentage of on-site generation.
Architects Journal. 26 Apr (Pg. 38-40)
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