Willmott Dixon completes work on new Information Teaching Lab for Queen Mary University of London
New laboratory space focuses on sustainability while increasing teaching capacity at the Mile End Campus.
Willmott Dixon’s credentials for creating sustainable properties have been further strengthened after being chosen by the Low Carbon Workplace to refurbish a 1940s office in Hammersmith into a highly energy efficient workplace.
The Low Carbon Workplace is a partnership between the Carbon Trust, Stanhope and fund manager Threadneedle, to design, build and manage contemporary offices for companies committed to energy-efficient operation. It acquires property to modernise into quality office space that is genuinely low carbon when in use.
Willmott Dixon has been chosen for a £10 million contract to completely refit 63,000 sq ft of office space over five storeys at Grove House, 27 Hammersmith Grove in Hammersmith, including new lifts, roof refurbishment, replacing M&E services and creating a new glazed atrium within the existing courtyard. It’s a key step in a wider strategy by the Low Carbon Workplace Partnership to rework post war building stock into desirable, low carbon offices that meet stringent new carbon reduction targets.
The company will refurbish the accommodation to a CAT A level, working with Bennett Architects, Akera Engineers and Arup. Completion will be in 2013 and it’s intended that work to create a super insulated, highly modernised building with reduced use of heating and electricity will lower energy usage by as much as 50 per cent at high utilisation levels.
It’s the latest in a string of project wins for Willmott Dixon to create low carbon, highly sustainable property in London. Willmott Dixon is currently building the UK’s largest Passivhaus residential project, in Camden, the first zero carbon ‘in use’ school, in Islington, and London’s first large housing development to reach Code for Sustainable Homes level six, in Staines Road, Hounslow.
For the company’s team of commercial specialists, it’s also another appointment on a major structural and interior modernisation in London, following recent wins for City & Guilds, London School of Economics, fashion brand McQ and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge. Jonathan Payne, commercial sector director says, "We are building up a solid track record as a company commercial clients can come to for their projects, especially in the field of creating better energy efficiency."