19 July 2006
RIBA Sustainability Award 2006 - Heelis, National Trust Hq

In many ways this is the most straightforward of the four schemes shortlisted for the RIBA Sustainability Award, but it is also the project with the most transferable lessons. It is primarily the most basic of building types – a developer-built office block (The National Trust then leases the building.) That it can then raise the sustainable stakes as high as it does is the real achievement. It is built by a developer at standard Class A costs, with the additional costs for the sustainable elements only allowed where they fitted into a ten-year payback.

The sustainable design is quite simple but well delivered; a well handled natural ventilation system with a degree of user control, super insulation, PV’s, lots of daylight, sensor controlled lighting. There is something very direct about the strategy that makes it understandable to the occupants and general public, which means that important lessons can be passed on. The building was described to the judges as a cardigan building – you learn to adapt to its cycles by putting on and taking off layers – and this was seen as positive by both client and by the judges.

However, most importantly, the strategy delivers an exceptionally pleasant working environment. It somehow feels healthy without being worthy. The use of daylight, the disposition of courtyards and atria, and the placing of windows are all brilliantly judged to give a sense of an awareness of the outside and openness, whilst at the same time not feeling exposed. For such a big building it is also surprisingly intimate, and the disarmingly simple construction never descends to crudeness.

The National Trust has furthered the sustainable ethos of the design through their management practices. Some simple ideas (no individual bins under desks, just central recycling points) some more demanding (no car parking spaces unless you are part of a car share).

The judges of this special award were pleased to be able to award the prize to a ‘mainstream’ building type, thus sending out signals that sustainability can and should be claimed by the centre ground, and not just be seen as the domain of the one-off maverick experiment.