
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.”

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