The building is designed along passive solar principles. It has highly insulated north facing walls with very few openings to minimize heat loss through the fabric. South facing elevations are glazed and all the office and nursery accommodation looks on to the south facing garden through a two-story atrium space. This passively heats the building. Heat gain is controlled by automatically opening and closing louvres to the patent glazing, which are also fitted with rain sensors. The building is entirely naturally ventilated with a free flow of air throughout the building.

Solar thermal cells to the roof supplement the hot water heating system. The building has a glulam timber frame structure that is exposed throughout. External walls to the northern elevation are block and through-colour render, with the southern elevations facing the garden glazed.

Rainwater is recycled and used to flush the w.c's and for an outside water supply to the garden.

There is more information on this project available in the Landscaping and Public and Commercial sections of our website. The photos were taken by Chris Webb.