OR Consulting are acting as building services consultants for the redevelopment and extension of Leach Pottery in St Ives to create low carbon production and training studio areas.

The project will transform the existing site to provide an efficient cafe, gallery, studio, shop, museum and residences. The Client is carrying out these works in an attempt to be carbon neutral in the near future.

Our proposal features a number of ‘lean’, ‘mean’ and ‘green’ strategies to optimise the performance of the new building, including:

• Recovery and storage of heat from the kiln firing processes to offset carbon emissions;
• Super-insulating new constructions to Passivhas standards;
• Replacing existing gas boiler systems with air-water heat pumps with bivalent heating systems to serve historic areas;
• Providing heat recovery ventilation to new studios;
• Consideration of micro hydro generation on site;
• Photovoltaic panels installed across new and existing roofs with local battery storage.