Great Glen House - Scottish Natural Heritage
The Challenge
To work with Developer, Robertson Construction and their architects, Keppie Design in the creation of a new Headquarters for Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to be relocated in Inverness.
SNH required developers to design a building to meet a list of precise criteria for environmental performance including a *BREEAM excellent rating, limits for carbon emissions, water usage and air tightness, and the use of ‘A’ rated Green Guide construction materials.
BREEAM
Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology is an independent measure of environmental quality in design and procurement used by the construction industry.
Great Glen House
The Solution
The design requirement included a need to maximise daylight. The preferred design included a large glazed atrium feature some 800m_ extending the length of the building with large glass screens at each gable. AC Yule was able to comply with the sustainable, recyclable criteria with the use of timber, glass and aluminium.
The gable screens were constructed using laminated timber curtain wall, with aluminium sloped glazed curtain wall being preferred for the monopitch roof design, in all cases the glass specification included low ‘E’ glass.
The roof in particular proved to be a challenge for our installation teams with large fabricated roof panels having to be braced to a specially constructed steel frame before being carefully lifted into place with a large crane.
The resulting building or Great Glen House as it is now called is designed to use 76.66 kWh/m_/year of energy (power, light and heat) to make the best use of daylight, use natural ventilation high grade insulation and low energy lighting throughout and have a Building Management System to monitor and manage all fuel usage and services. Solar collectors provide at least 62% of hot water energy, and 5.2% of the buildings total energy needs. The target output of less than 8kg carbon per square metre has been met, with a maximum carbon emission of 7.16kg C/m_/year - well ahead of best practise. Floor coverings and paints all met with environmental standards.
Sustainable recycling made use of materials from the pre-existing building in the construction of the new one and environmental impact assessments were carried out in planning each stage of construction. For the first time on a site in Scotland, the construction teams had to separate all waste for recycling, as SNH staff do now.
Building work was completed on May 15 2006, SNH completed the process of moving its staff into the building in July 2006.
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