last updated 21st October 05
By 4ecotips

Glass-fronted cube has outstanding energy efficiency

Although it was eight times over budget and years behind schedule, the £431m Scottish Parliament building designed by the late Spanish architect Enric Miralles, picked up this year's Stirling Prize, one of architecture's most prestigious accolades.

In the running for the same award was the far more financially modest Jubilee Library, Brighton, at a mere £8m but nonetheless spectacular in architectural terms. Designed by Bennetts Associates this glass-fronted cube is not only a thoroughly stylish building, it's creators have given it an energy efficiency that's likely to be admired and, hopefully, replicated by many.

Photo by Peter Cook

This splendid library project was developed under a Private Finance Initiative, on time and on budget. And as the literature says "it has the architectural stature and ambition of a major public building" which was why it has deservedly won the UK Prime Minister's Better Public Building prize.

Obviously Bennetts Associates are well into environmental sustainability and have had other notable successes with buildings for PowerGen and Wessex Water. According to the architects the science of sustainability "is fundamental to achieving architectural excellence, especially in a context such as PFI where objective assessment is required at every stage."

The architect's blurb points out that the engineering of the library building supported the architectural intention. So the thick walls surrounding the central space contain air ducts from the roof-level plantrooms, feeding air through voids in the Termodeck floorslabs - a ventilation system using the building structure as an energy store - before entering the perimeter rooms and the main library space.

In winter warm air is recirculated back to the plant room at high level. In the summer, the extract system is driven by three centrally located wind towers that have an architectural merit of their own adding, as they do, spice to a skyline renowned for its Regency domes and minarets.

The building boasts "exceptionally low energy consumption, low embodied energy and recycled rainwater" which is used to flush the loos.

Jubilee Library is quite outstanding which has been appropriately described as a "simple, energy efficient building with a good measure of style, as befits this swaggering seaside city". And its glass façade "dissolves at night to expose the powerful library interior."