Articles:

Our M&E design challenge was to look at the entire office environment and standardise the design of the M&E systems to deliver outstanding performance, while controlling costs and ensuring that the exposed services were aesthetically appealing as well.. Driving value in M&E building services at the Forge.

Although timber captures carbon, if left to rot naturally in an open-air landfill, it releases the stored carbon as well as methane, which has a greater global warming impact than CO2.If incinerated, it generates energy and does not release methane but still releases the stored carbon along with other pollutants.

However, if reused or upcycled, carbon remains stored offering long-lasting environmental benefits..Some of these end-of-life difficulties with engineered timber relate to its size.The use of screeds, which are bound to the surface of timber and structural fixings also make it difficult to dismantle and reuse.. Long span engineered timber elements also undergo non-reversible long-term deformations that can limit its feasibility to be reused as a structural element.

However, upcycling of these elements is still a viable solution.. Our response is to:.- Engage early with contractors to plan deconstruction scenarios and reduce waste sent to landfill.. - Adopt circular economy strategies for deconstruction and reuse, including:.

o Upcycling materials to put back in the local supply chain.. o Adopting the principles of buildings as material banks, urban mining, and use of material passports.. o Using bolted connections and smaller structural grids, which facilitate disassembly, cutting (if needed) and deconstruction.. Use membranes to decouple the slab from the screed and explore alternatives, such as dry screeds, sand and gravel screeds, floor dense boards, particle boards or cardboard and sand layers.. Procurement of timber and distance.

Currently, most timber used in the UK for construction is manufactured and imported from mainland Europe.In line with the client’s ambitions to use sustainable materials, building elements have been chosen to avoid products that come from areas of high risk for modern slavery and, where possible, they have been procured locally and specified with responsible sourcing certificates (all permanent timber will be FSC certified)..

The sustainably focused design promotes the use of healthy materials, avoiding products identified in the client’s prohibited materials list, which includes materials labelled as acutely toxic, serious health hazard, Persistent Bio-Accumulative (PBA), and the use of Chromium VI, PVC, Rayon, Asbestos, Mercury, Lead, Cadmium or other heavy metals.Finishes, paints and adhesives have been selected to meet the formaldehyde, Benzene and VOC thresholds from the WELL Standard..

The future of wellbeing in architectural design.The impact of the pandemic has highlighted the importance of designing for wellbeing.