OR Consulting were the low carbon building services consultants for the redevelopment of the existing Gunpowder House in Southwark to create a new home for The Africa Centre.

The project transformed the existing building into a cafe, bar & lounge, a gallery and performance space, a digital learning & research centre and a business suite.

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

• Super-insulating the existing roof of the main building.
• Utilizing the use of the building’s existing concrete frame to allow for passive thermal mass cooling.
• Optimising daylighting within the building and reducing the need for artificial lighting requirements.
• Utilising the existing staircase as a thermal chimney to encourage passive ventilation in winter.
• Employing photovoltaic panels at roof level to generate electricity.
• The design of a building wide heat recovery strategy to utilise air source heat pumps.
• Specification of low water sanitary fittings and low energy light fittings.
• Working alongside Freehaus to specify materials with high recycled content and low embodied carbon.