Blyth Workspace
Max Fordham completed the first phase of the Commissioners Quay master plan, Blyth Workspace.
The 2,800 metres square development provides high quality, sustainable and contemporary category A office and conference facilities for new start-up businesses in the renewable energy sector. The building offers a range of incubator offices, which have been designed to allow future flexibility in terms of office sixe and use patterns.
The key aspects of the brief which included the mechanical, electrical and physics design of the building included the requirement for BREEAM very good, minimising the energy and carbon dioxide footprint whilst maximising the amount of natural ventilation and daylight and the associated energy saving.
To accommodate to the specific requirements a number of innovative design solutions were used such as ground source pumps to provide heating and cooling for the offices, user controlled mix mode ventilation to allow the use of natural ventilation when advantageous and extensive BMS control of heating, cooling and ventilation with window and occupancy interlocks.
The building has achieved excellent daylight without an excessive amount of glazing and provides external shading to the south façade to reduce solar gain in the office has been carefully detailed into the window reveals.
Each office includes a full height sliding window to take advantage of the excellent views out and to provide a connection to the seaside environment on nice days. In addition to this each office also has independent ventilation units with separate fan coils and individual electrical supplies and distribution boards.