About
Architect: Alec French Architects
Contractor: Willmott Dixon
Sector: Education
Overview
The University of West England’s masterplan for the Bower Ashton Campus redevelopment seeked to provide a modern, fit for purpose, environment that will attract and retain students and enable the UWE to retain its position as a sector leader.
Procured through the Southern Construction Framework, the new three-storey building incorporates fabrication workshops on the ground floor, open plan studio space for up to 300 students across two programmes and the Centre for Fine Print Research across the first and second floors.
The Brief
The entire building was specified to achieve a high Breem rating through the introduction of natural ventilation to provide fresh air to all the classrooms and communal areas.
Our Solution
Our design solution was to install a series of extract roof turrets situated on individual concrete shafts that descend from the roof to ground floor at each floor level extract points are installed at ceiling level to allow warm air to enter the shaft and taken out of the building at roof level. A series of external timber louvres are positioned around the perimeter of the building with modulating UPVC dampers mounted to the rear. They operate to allow fresh air to enter each room by cross ventilation through the space extracting through the central extract shaft.
