About
Architect: Hopkins
Contractor: Willmott Dixon
Sector: Charity
Download full Case Study
Overview
The Wild Wildlife Foundation Building in Woking is designed to achieve the highest BREEM standards possible incorporating rainwater harvesting, solar power, zero carbon products and specialised natural ventilation to ventilate the open spaces within the main building.
The Brief
To design the ventilation systems Vision Ventilation where commissioned to design a series of unique natural ventilation wind towers to draw air out of the building with low level inlet clean air being provided by a series of low-level inlet turrets.
Our Solution
The design of the roof required a series of four rotating wind cowls of a similar design that we installed onto the University of Nottingham Campus several years ago. The wind cowls are designed to rotate away from the prevailing wind at low wind speeds of around 2-3m/s, that is quite an achievement considering each unit weight is over 1500kg. The air passing around the cowl skin induces a negative suction pressure on the extract louvre on the rear of the cowl drawing contaminated air from Inside the building. A circular insulated damper is fitted into the base of the cowl that open and closes to modulate the amount of air being drawn from the space below.
Replacement cool fresh air is provided through six circular intake louvre modules mounted at ground floor level around the perimeter of the building. Air is drawn through the louvres passing in concrete earth ducts underground. The air passing in the concrete is conditioned to provide constant cool air that enters the building through the floor gradually absorbing warm air that rises up to the wind cowls maintaining a constant steady ambient temperature and low CO2 levels.
