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Havelock

An exemplar retrofit that brings technical excellence to Manchester

View of front elevation of building, red cladding and windows, against a blue sky

Services (1)

Sectors

Location

Manchester, United Kingdom

Client

Credit Suisse

Architect

OMI Architects

Havelock, a 110,700 sq ft Grade A office building, is the latest addition to Manchester’s commercial landscape. After refurbishment and an extension consisting of two extra floors added to the original concrete frame, Havelock offers full access raised floors on every level, and a range of on-site amenities such as an on-site gym, a wellness studio, café, and 131 bicycle storage spaces. The building is targeting BREEAM ‘Outstanding’, which will make it the only completed retrofit building in Manchester to achieve that.

The deep retrofit took this office space down to its frame, retaining 2000 tonnes of CO2e embodied carbon by preserving the original structure. Although being hugely environmentally beneficial, it did challenge our fire engineers to be creative when designing around existing features, leading them to create some variations on to the original building fire strategy. This included solutions such as a new phased evacuation strategy and alternatives to common lift lobbies, due to the location of existing lift cores.

Teodor Sofroniev, Principal Engineer, comments: “Seeing this project achieve NABERS 5*, an A EPC, and go for BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ is very rewarding. Going above and beyond when faced with the typical challenges of a building of this age, such as the existing stair pressurisation system allowed our engineers to show great innovative thinking. We incorporated a new system in coordination with the façade design to future proof the building and support more flexible tenancies.”

Key fact

A phased evacuation strategy had to be introduced to ensure safe egress due to the increased occupancy of the building

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Teodor stood in the atrium in front of rust red railings and interior windows

Teodor Sofroniev

Principal Fire Safety Engineer

View bio

Finding solutions that preserved the environment and provided cost effectiveness exemplifies the technical excellency we strive for.

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