Queen Mary, University of London has won a Green Gown Award for its re-cladding of the GE Fogg building. The award - in the category, 'Sustainable Construction and Refurbishment’ - was presented during a ceremony at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London on 3 November.
Home to the university’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences and situated along Bancroft Road on its Mile End campus, the GE Fogg building has undergone a recent and striking transformation. Once uneconomical to heat and suffering from extreme solar glare, the concrete structure was corroded and the windows leaking. Now, thanks to a sustainable refurbishment solution planned with architects Fraser Brown MacKenna, the formerly fading 1970's edifice boasts increased insulation, high-performance glazing, and a striking new identity.
The logistical challenges of negotiating working laboratories and a building that bridges a public highway were cleverly overcome, with 4,600sq metres of rainscreen cladding and curtain walling installed across the complex building geometry. As a result the building now offers improved user comfort, a 20 per cent reduction in solar gain, reduced energy demand of 70 per cent, and an annual CO2 reduction of 6.0kg/CO2/m2. It has also been given a new lease of life for a fraction of the cost of a rebuild.
The Green Gown judges called the project: “…an excellent all round entry which managed to take occupier comfort into consideration while simultaneously transforming an operational building. Improvements will not only extend the life of the structure but will also result in a high energy demand reduction of 70 per cent and similar improvements in u-values.”
Rebecca Maiden, Head of Energy and the Environment at Queen Mary said: “Queen Mary is extremely happy to have received the ‘Sustainable Construction and Refurbishment’ Green Gown Award. The G.E.Fogg Building is a stand out building, both architecturally and in the very important sustainability features which have been incorporated into the design and construction. The university is committed to sustainability and this building highlights the depth of that commitment. We intend to continually monitor the performance of the building to ensure that it achieves what it has been designed to achieve.”
Now in their seventh year, the Green Gown Awards recognise the exceptional sustainability initiatives being undertaken by universities and colleges across the UK. With sustainability moving up the agenda, the Awards have become established as the most prestigious recognition of best practice within the further and higher education sector.
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