Jubilee Campus, Nottingham.

The brief for this university campus design required a low energy building for the business school and the education faculty, with a wide variety of room sizes and functions. The work included ensuring that the European Commission (Thermie programme) and the British Ministry for Energy DTI financed the low energy strategy. The energy strategy is based on a well-insulated building, a low energy ventilation system, passive solar energy gain, using direct daylight, using a building-integrated photovoltaic system. The buildings are very compact and well insulated. The Scandinavian type windows have a low U-value. The buildings use a mechanical ventilation system (low-velocity air-handling units) located at the top of the staircases. The corridors act as a plenum for outgoing ventilation air. Incoming ventilation air is taken from the atria when the indoor temperature is higher than the outside temperature. In summer the cooler night air is ventilated through the building to cool down the thermal mass of the building. The atria areas ventilate inwards, with banks of automatic louvres to catch the prevailing wind over the lake. Automatic louvres are also located on top, to transport the warmer air outside. Passive solar energy is mainly gained in the atria, where the indoor temperature is higher due to solar irradiation, which heats the fresh ventilation air.