Workspaces with Green Credentials
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Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh yesterday took a tour of the world’s highest BREEAM rated building: the new headquarters of the Co-operative Group in Manchester, UK. Designed by 3D Reid, the 500,000 sq ft facility brings together the company’s 3,000+ staff, previously dispersed across 8 different buildings, under a single roof.
Heralded as ‘the most environmentally- friendly building in the world’, One Angel Square incorporates a plethora of sustainable features, earning it the highest ever BREEAM rating of 95.16%. These elements include: power generated from crops grown on farms owned by the Co-operative Group; heating and cooling the premises by drawing air below the basement and redistributing it at the earth’s core temperature; and a double skin façade that acts as a duvet to insulate the offices in the winter and ventilate them in the summer.
Of the impressive BREEAM result, Mike Hitchmough, Project Director at 3DReid, said: “This is a fantastic result, not just for the client and the team who worked so hard together to achieve this, but for the industry. There is a common mis-held belief that delivering truly sustainable buildings is expensive and a poor investment.
“With One Angel Square, we’ve proved on a massive scale that you can design large commercially viable office buildings, even in a regional market, that minimize waste, cost and environmental impact. One Angel Square is the first step in a much wider (20 acre) redevelopment project for Manchester city centre. Over the next ten years, the scheme will transform the northern portion of the city centre into a vibrant mixed-use district with commercial, residential and leisure facilities.
3D REID ARCHITECTURE