HVAC and Plumbing
HVAC is controlled via centralised plants that are
on the roof and reticulate down shafts adjacent
to the central core. Return air rises through the
atriums and is pulled back into the plant rooms via
a massive ventilation plenum that surrounds the
atrium void. The HVAC allows for economy cycle
cooling where the system will, as far as possible,
use outside ambient air to cool the internal space.
This allows for substantial energy savings for large
parts of the year.
All showers and irrigation in the building
reticulate to a centralised grey water plant, with
that water being processed and re-used for toilet
flushing and irrigation. All toilets are low volume
flush, and all taps have flow restrictors fitted.
Sustainable Elements
The building has achieved 5 star Green Star
design rating, and the Green Star Interiors V1 As
As-Built rating is in the process of being applied
for. Apart from the HVAC and plumbing strategies
mentioned above, indigenous planting has been
used throughout to reduce water usage. Cyclist
and jogging change facilities and showers are
provided. All lights are LED. Internal blinds are
automated and controlled by a suntracking system
that adjusts the blinds angle as the sun moves
across the sky to minimise glare and maximise
light into the floor plates.
The ‘Glassing’ of Discovery - Pure Consulting
Pure Façades were part of a bid that won the
contract to build a new headquarters designed
for Discovery’s special requirements. They were
therefore on the Design Team as the Specifying
Façade engineer’s and designers from the very
beginning. Pure’s Neil MacLeod gave his thoughts
on the façade.
“The main façades are continuously curving
inner and outer glass planes forming a draped
‘camisole’ around the building. They are aluminium
framed with high performance double glazing.
Some people say the glass is a bit on the dark side
but that is because it was selected after intense
debate and analysis to favour occupant comfort
near to the façades over clearer options.
The canopies are single glazed with thick
sandblasted glass for shading and to hide the dirt
when they have not cleaned the glass!
The roof lights are very special and were not
easy. Tears and blood were shed metaphorically
and tempers were lost not so metaphorically
over some of the issues sadly. But as the saying
goes, we chose to do this because it is not easy.
Something very special was required and generally
that means something hard to do.
Take the structure first. If you look at the steel
you will see a repetition of structural form. We
have used double tension tied down prestressed
bar trusses at medium scale and then at a huge
scale to span 35m with no bracing in the plane of
the glass.
The shape of the roof lights are tilted cylinders
sloping up from the centre and having an oval
shape when viewed from above. The glass is
SIGU’s using thin Fritted Fully Toughened Glass in
the outer. This outer is designed for hail resistance
on the basis it breaks the hail and not the other
way around! The inner glass is a thicker laminated
glass that supports the outer glass on a bubble of
insulating gas inside the SIGU’s. As I said the roof
lights are very special!”
Interior Architecture & Design
One of the main factors pertinent to the
interiors of 1 Discovery Place is that the design
was customised very specifically around the
Discovery’s requirements. The developers chose
to include Discovery throughout the design
process to ensure the building was tailored
for them. On that basis, Interior Architects and
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1 Discovery Place