Smoke on the water

The former Imperial Tobacco headquarters on the outskirts of Bristol is benefiting from a health makeover. Developer Urban Splash is converting the dilapidated Grade II listed building into 358 luxury apartments and 1600 m2 of commercial space.

The dense office block was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in 1974. Its corten and concrete frame has a life of 800 years, yet it has stood derelict since 1991. Acanthus Ferguson Mann, architect of the revamp, is designing a new block as well as renovating the existing one, with the emphasis on green credentials.

The brief was for a carbon neutral or even positive building, and the project is in good hands. Atelier Ten, the m&e consultants, are at the forefront of low energy design.

When it comes to finding an m&e contractor who can install energy efficient underground heat pumps, however, the consultants will have their work cut out. Patrick Bellew, director of Atelier Ten, explains: “The UK m&e contractor does not have a background in geothermal. We're going to have to develop a whole new industry to harness this technology.”

To a large part, what contractors put in comes largely from the consultants and designers. “We’re behind the times only so far as in we don’t have a developed infrastructure of geothermal installers, and we tend to look to Scandinavia and Germany where they’ve been doing geothermal installations for many years,” says Bellew. “People haven’t been designing it, therefore our construction industry hasn’t had to adapt to it. I’m sure it will over the next year or two.”

The demand for low carbon solutions is rising rapidly, but for the moment, the m&e contractor generally has to partner with a specialist subcontractor who is used to doing either pipework in piling systems or putting pipework down boreholes. Beyond this stage, however, heat pump technology is reassuringly straighforward.

Bellew draws close parallels with how the industry is developing in the US. “In the states that haven’t had it for long, geothermal is a more expensive initiative, but the prices are dropping quite quickly as companies move into the area and pick up the expertise,” he explains. “Some areas have a lack of knowledge base, but it develops fast. It’s not rocket science, it’s just a bit more complicated than putting in a chiller.”