The University of Leicester’s Centre for Medicine, known as the George Davies Centre, picked up the ‘Project of the Year’ award at last night’s CIBSE awards. It is the largest non-residential building to achieve ultra low energy consumption Passivhaus standard. It also holds EPC A and BREEAM Excellent ratings.
The Centre for Medicine is the physical expression of the University of Leicester’s excellent reputation for medical research and teaching.
Statistics for the building show why it was crowned ‘Project of the Year’:
- the Centre for Medicine is the largest investment in medical teaching and applied research by a UK university in last decade;
- it is the UK’s largest non-residential project built to Passivhaus standards;
- it is almost four times larger than the closest competitor;
- it records an energy performance asset rating of 19;
- it has 150 sq.m photovoltaic array.
At the heart of the Centre for Medicine:
The brief was to deliver an up-to-date facility that would, at its heart, create a sense of home and shared identity for 2,350 staff and students. A target of an 80% reduction in annual energy bills was also set. Our resulting design aimed to deliver the much-needed teaching rooms, academic offices, dry lab research facilities. All this was delivered within a building of exemplar environmental performance. A mixture of renewable technologies, sustainable design techniques and sensitive massing have helped to deliver a building that places its surrounding environment at its core.
The CIBSE Judges commented:
“The standard of the shortlist was incredibly high but the centre for medicine had the best performance. It will be a tough project to follow. We are impressed with the actual energy performance and it will provide a great standard of best practice for the industry to follow.”
Director Warren Jukes added:
“Working closely with our partners, we’ve created a building whose credentials we are immensely proud of. We want the Centre for Medicine to be the benchmark for delivering low energy architecture on a large scale.”
The project delivery team included:
- Architect – Associated Architects
- Contractor – Willmott Dixon
- Structural Engineer – Ramboll
- Building Services Engineer – Couch Perry Wilkes
