Hoare Lea wins design appointment for Imperial College

Hoare Lea has been appointed to provide M&E design services for the redevelopment of L Block at Imperial College’s Hammersmith campus, a 6-storey, 13 000 m2 scientific research building. The practice will also supply specialist building-services design advice — including fire engineering, acoustics, thermal modelling, vertical transportation, facade access and BREEAM assessment.
The former L block dates back to the 1930s, and the new £82 million facility is one of the largest construction contracts ever placed by Imperial College. It has been designed to achieve 32% lower carbon emissions than required by Part L 2006.
Design features include passive exposed chilled beams in offices and write-up areas. They will work with open-loop boreholes to provide cooling without using chillers. Variable-volume fume cupboards will reduce the heating and cooling of the associated make-up air. There will be a site-wide 2 MW(e) CHP-supported heating scheme to reduce carbon emissions by 10%.
The redevelopment includes the demolition of the existing building and is scheduled for completion in 2011.