South Lanarkshire College

South Lanarkshire College

Client: Austin-Smith:Lord
Value: £1.7m
Date Completed: January 2016

The first UK BREEAM outstanding accreditation was awarded to South Lanarkshire College’s new Education Block. Our role in the project was Civil and Structural Engineer. The commission was won through a team bid led by Austin Smith Lord Architects. The building is a modest sized steel framed structure with panelised wall and roof cassette panels.

The outstanding BREEAM accreditation was achieved by an equally outstanding collaborative effort from the client, consultancy team and contractor. The Buildings design was challenging from many aspects. Every construction material was chosen carefully with the overall sustainability case at the main driver together with its interface with the rest of the building fabric. A significant amount of timber and off site fabrication was used as part of the solution. Many or the structural materials were recycled which came with its own challenges.

The project carries all the design aspects one would normally associate with a well-designed sustainable building, including rainwater harvesting, passive environmental management, solar gain design management, ground source heat pump, eradication of cold bridging and much more. One of the keys to projects success was the commitment form South Lanarkshire College together with the collaborative attention to detail provided by the consultancy team.