Multi-million pound hotel refurbishment

3DReid’s hotels team has completed the renovation of the five star Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa in Edinburgh, which has been named the Edinburgh Hotel of the Year in the 2012 Scottish Hotel Awards.

Working closely with interior designers MKV and contractor Thomas Johnstone, the works complete the final phase of a multi-million pound refurbishment of the hotel. The refurbishments have provided contemporary public areas including an enhanced conference suite and state-of-the-art delegate rooms along with the new ‘One Square’ restaurant and bar on Festival Square and a brand new kitchen.

Moving a staircase into the heart of the building, opposite the existing guest lifts, and relocating the hotel bar to the front of the Festival Square elevation adjacent to the restaurant, simplified the guest circulation and opened up the hotel’s reception lobby into a grand, spacious, arrival area, with an impressive double-height atrium space and gleaming black stone floor.

Mark Bruce of 3DReid Architects hotel sector said: “As a team we have all undertaken the most thorough transformation in the hotel’s history. It is extremely satisfying to see the hotel open its doors and embark upon an exciting new era.”

Accessible drinking fountain for London park

The Royal Parks Foundation’s quest to create the ultimate drinking fountain for the Royal Parks was finally complete as Watering Holes, a unique sculptural stone fountain, was launched in Green Park, London, following the unveiling of Moxon Architects’ Trumpet in Kensington Gardens earlier this year. The two fountains are the winners of an international design competition supported by The Tiffany & Co Foundation, New York. 

Robin Monotti Architects and Mark Titman’s Watering Holes is an 800kg slab of Cornish granite – the same as was used in the Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park and Tower Bridge – perforated with three watering holes at heights from which adults, children, wheelchair users and dogs can drink cool, fresh water, in one of London’s most visited Royal Parks.

The installation in Green Park, near the new Bomber Command Memorial, marks the end of a two-year collaboration between the Royal Parks Foundation, The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, RIBA Competitions and The Royal Parks, to create a new drinking fountain that is both beautiful and robust and which enhances The Royal Parks’ Grade-I listed landscapes.

The Watering Holes drinking fountain in Green Park

Architecture practice awards prizes worth £1,000

Award-winning architects Sheppard Robson has awarded two £500 prizes, for the Best Part 2 student project and Best Part 1 Project, to students at Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh School of Architecture end of year show.

The firm’s sponsorship is an enterprising initiative bringing together an internationally-renowned private sector practice with a world-leading architecture school to recognise student excellence.

The winning students were Zichao Chen for the Best Part 2 Project in fifth year and Jack Taylor for the Best Part 1 Project in third year.

James Dick who leads Sheppard Robson’s Scottish office, said: “We were very impressed with the standard of projects. Zichao’s project was not only visually dramatic and striking but thought provoking regarding inner city retail and existing shopping centres generally.

“Jack Taylor’s work, meanwhile, took a very different and considered approach to the main street of Penicuik. While many students focused on a particular building, Jack has thought very carefully about the streetscape itself and his project seeks to create interesting hard landscape and building interventions to enliven the route for the pedestrian through the town. He also had a very bold and poetic design for a writing retreat at Little Sparta, the garden of artist Ian Hamilton Finlay.”

 Impressed by the standard of entries: James Dick who leads Sheppard Robson’s Scottish office

£2.2m West Nottinghamshire College award for BBES

Balfour Beatty Engineering Services has been awarded a £2.2m contract for the design, supply and installation of mechanical and electrical services for Mansell’s project at West Nottinghamshire College.   

The phase 2B new teaching block project will be situated on the Derby Road campus in Mansfield. The college’s ageing sports hall has been demolished to make way for a new steel framed teaching block boasting 4,000sqm of learning space, including modern classrooms, ITC suites, hair and beauty salons, a specialist health spa, and fine-dining restaurant with training kitchen.

The overall £24m redevelopment of the college is currently underway and also includes the construction of a state-of-the-art sports hall and the re-cladding of a six-storey tower with the aim of rejuvenating the visual appearance of the campus.

The BBES contract is due to start soon and the building is aiming to achieve a BREEAM rating of very good.  

New president for the Institute of Acoustics

Professor Bridget Shield has become the first female president of the Institute of Acoustics in its 38-year history.

Professor Shield, who succeeds Professor Trevor Cox, said: “It’s a great honour and I’m looking forward to carrying on Trevor’s work over the last two years in raising our profile and that of acoustics generally.

“The fact that I am the first female President will, I hope, encourage more young women into the profession. Since I joined the Institute in 1974 there has been a significant increase in the number of women members, and I intend to ensure this continues.

“I also want to establish closer links with other professional bodies, such as RIBA, and to disseminate our knowledge of problems in acoustics and noise to those people involved in devising solutions, for example architects and engineers.”

Professor Shield is Professor of Acoustics at London South Bank University. Since joining the university (then South Bank Poly) 26 years ago, she has established a world-wide reputation for her research, in particular the effects of noise on children and how it affects their ability to learn. Her expertise in this area resulted in her being appointed an editor of Building Bulletin 93 and she is currently involved in helping update the regulations governing acoustic design standards in schools.

Professor Bridget Shield, president of the Institute of Acoustics

Royal guest opens University of Edinburgh’s SCRM

The £54 million University of Edinburgh’s Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine (SCRM) building has been officially opened by the Princess Royal. Designed by architecture practice Sheppard Robson, SCRM is the first large-scale, purpose-built facility of its kind in the UK and is set to become the first laboratory building in Scotland to receive a BREEAM Excellent rating. 

 Located at Edinburgh BioQuarter, the SCRM building will provide a sustainable environment for the study and development of new treatments for human diseases based on regenerative medicine.

 Edinburgh BioQuarter, in the South East of Edinburgh, is a medical science park built in partnership between Scottish Enterprise, the University of Edinburgh, NHS Lothian and Alexandria Real Estate Equities.

 Professor Charles Ffrench-Constant, Director of the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, said: “Sustainability is central to the design of the new SCRM, and nowhere more so than in its science. An iconic building, visually striking and functionally state-of-the-art, this new facility provides the magnet we need to recruit the brightest and the best and so maintain our world-leading science and train the next generation of doctors and scientists.”

 Luke Thurman, associate at Sheppard Robson, said: “The building’s internal form mimics a ‘pebble in a pond’ effect with smaller, darker spaces, such as the cell culture rooms, positioned in the centre of the building while laboratory spaces are positioned in the middle and write-up spaces are located next to the outer walls, allowing for natural ventilation and lighting.”

The building has achieved SCRM’s objective of BREEAM Excellent rating through the choice of materials, active and passive sustainable systems and an efficiency of design and detailing.

 Externally, large openable windows at the ground and first floor ensure that natural light is maximised and an open window can provide local cooling and ventilation as required. These glazed screens are augmented with vertical fixed louvres or fins that provide the solar shading required to minimise heat gain. Active sustainability systems include rainwater recycling and a ground source heat pump, powered by the photovoltaic panels on the roof, to reduce energy consumption within the building.

Sheppard Robson worked as part of a design team that included consulting engineers Buro Happold and contractor Miller Construction to deliver a building designed for 250 people but able to accommodate up to 350. The 8,700 sq m building delivers a 22% reduction in carbon emissions against industry benchmark figures while 76% of its energy is contributed from renewable sources.

SPAB’s research and reports day

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, SPAB, has organised a one-day event later this year bringing together new key findings and research on energy efficiency and the performance of old and traditionally constructed buildings.

October is likely to see the launch of the government’s Green Deal, an initiative intended to reduce carbon emissions by revolutionising the energy efficiency of British properties. Old Buildings & Energy Efficiency Research: SPAB’s  research and reports day on 30 October at the Fazeley Studios, in Birmingham, will present the latest findings on the energy performance of old and traditionally built properties and look at what some implications of the Green Deal might be for such buildings. 

The event coincides with the first day of Retro Expo a new exhibition and conference in Birmingham focusing on delivering energy efficient refurbishment and retrofit of domestic commercial buildings in the UK. 

It will bring together the country’s leading specialists in traditional building energy efficiency research. Speakers will present their most recent findings and conclusions about the way old buildings actually perform and The SPAB will publish its own updated research reports at the event.

The day will also highlight the latest thinking, reports and guidance from bodies and organisations including Department of Energy and Climate Change, DECC, English Heritage and Historic Scotland.