Sustainability is often seen as a cost, but at Cathedral Hill Industrial Estate it’s become the key to a 220% rental uplift and a CIBSE award-winning retrofit. Andy Pearson reports
Category: Case Studies
Double act: developing digital twins at the University of Liverpool
Too often discarded after planning approval, design models can power advanced digital twins that cut energy use, carbon emissions and costs. Alex Smith looks at a pioneering IES project that has created a powerful engine for operational efficiency
How NABERS UK helped deliver a winning office design
CIBSE Building Performance Award winner Globe Point, in Leeds, is using the NABERS UK standard to ensure that its carbon-busting office design is realised post-occupancy. Andy Pearson speaks to Hoare Lea’s Philip Mannis about the design and assessment tool
A new chapter on solar heat at the British Library
The British Library’s ambitious decarbonisation strategy starts with energy reduction at its Grade I-listed archive in King’s Cross. Alex Smith looks at a solar heating and power project that generated more than 200MWh of renewable energy in 12 months
Dancing on air: designing Sadler’s Wells East
In contemporary dance performance, attention to detail is everything – nothing should break the connection between the dancer and the audience, including the background hum of heating and cooling systems. Andy Pearson looks at how Buro Happold met the exacting acoustic requirements at Sadler’s Wells East
Tapping into efficiency: Passivhaus school’s point-of-use water heaters
At the Passivhaus-accredited Riverside Primary School in Perth, Scotland, the selection of point-of-use water heaters played a key role in driving down energy use. Baxi’s Andy Green explains how the optimal solution was realised
Turning waste into warmth: how data centres can heat tomorrow’s cities
Aecom has helped develop a vast energy centre in West London that will pipe waste heat from data centres into 10,000 new homes and existing businesses via a heat network. The company’s Asad Kwaja looks at the ‘architecture’ behind the design
Passivhaus case study: Woodmill High School and St Columba’s RC High School
The UK’s largest Passivhaus education building has operational energy use of just 45kWh·m-² per year. Andy Pearson looks at how the project team optimised performance and qualified for an outcome-based funding boost
Rewriting the rules of retrofit: the Entopia building
The Entopia Building sets a new benchmark for sustainable retrofits. Andy Pearson explores how CIBSE’s 2025 Building Performance Champion used a fabric-first approach to cut whole life carbon by 84%
Net zero healing: the NHS National Rehabilitation Centre
The National Rehabilitation Centre near Loughborough is being designed to achieve the new NHS Net Zero Building Standard and be a template for a new generation of smart buildings in the NHS. Alex Smith reports
