Ska Gold Rating for 22 Newman Street
Project Profile: 22 Newman Street, London W1 (Cat A & B fit-out)
Client: Fourfront Group
Designer: Area Sq
Contractor: Area Sq
Ska Accredited Assessor: Mathew Byway, Alphacello Ltd
Ska Rating: Gold
• 92% waste diverted from landfill
• 58 Ska Rating Good Practice Measures achieved
• 100% of measures relating to lighting and waste achieved
Project Background
In January 2012 commercial interior specialist Fourfront Group moved to period offices on Newman Street, London W1. The vision was to create a sustainable office environment within the 7,500 sq ft period building, whilst retaining the character period features.
Fourfront Group is ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 UKAS certified and offer their customers sustainable design and fit out services, so it was important that they created a flagship office, and put into practice what they preach. They wanted to show their clients that you can dramatically improve the sustainability of the built environment by optimising the way an office is planned, designed, constructed, maintained and operated.
Living Principles of Design
The office has been designed to allow the staff and guests to feel more connected and to relate more closely to the natural environment. The space has been maximised by removing unnecessary partitions whilst retaining the high ceilings. The lower ground floor is now an integral part of the office space, having replaced the clunky lift with a central spiral staircase that lets light flood in.
Natural finishes provide simplicity, subtle sophistication, texture and clean lines, which enables the office to retain the feel of an environment that stimulates your mind and spirit.
58 Good Practice Measures
Initial evaluation demonstrated that 75 of the Ska ratings 104 good practice measures were in scope for the project, and the project team was able to meet 58 of these. This included achieving 14 Gold Gateway Measures, which are considered to be harder to achieve but offer the most significant impacts in terms of sustainability.
The history of the building was considered throughout, and the use of modern technologies was complimented with period design features including recycled content ‘library’ wallpaper in the main meeting room and the use of a salvaged door as a reception desk.
Central to the projects success in achieving a Ska Gold rating was the implementation of automatic monitoring and targeting equipment (AMT). The Group installed an integrated building & technology system which is an intelligent software based platform unifiying all of the offices energy-consuming systems including HVAC, lighting and AV.
The intuitive system manages occupancy usage of the meeting rooms for maximum productivity and efficiency. When a meeting is scheduled, it automatically “wakes up” the room prior to the start of a presentation. After the meeting, the occupancy sensors detect when the room is vacant and automatically power off devices. The Group now has the ability to control all office systems remotely, providing data to enable the analysis of the results and pinpoint where further energy saving measures will be most effective. Technology and innovation was an important theme of the project, and other highly rated elements included electrical sub-metering, lighting controls and HVAC zone controls.
If you would like to find out more about the project, and visit the building please email Mathew.Byway@alphacello.com or visit www.fourfrontgroup.co.uk
About the Ska Rating
Ska Rating helps organisations achieve more sustainable fit-outs. Anybody interested in fitting out an office building in a more environmentally sustainable way can use the method to:
• Commission a quality assured assessment and certificate from a RICS accredited Ska assessor
• Obtain clear guidance on good practice in fit-out and how to implement it
• Benchmark the performance of fit-outs against each other and the rest of the industry.
