The largest bookshop to have opened in the UK so far this century
Project Details
- Scheme & Version: BREEAM 2008: Retail
- Stage: Final
- Location: London, UK
- Score & Rating: 3.4% Excellent
- Certificate Number: BREEAM-0057-1794
Project Team
- Client – Noved Investment One
- Development Manager – Aquila Holdings
- Contractor – Mace
- Architect – Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands
- Building Services Engineers – Hilson Moran
- Structural Engineers – Waterman Structures
- BREEAM assessor – Hilson Moran
About the building
The new Foyles flagship at 107 Charing Cross Road houses a range of over 200,000 different titles on four miles (6.5km) of shelves – the equivalent of lining one bank of the Thames with books from Battersea Power Station to the Tower of London. With 37,000 square feet of retail space, spread across eight alternating foot-plates over four floors, it is the largest bookshop to have opened in the UK so far this century.
Green strategy
Whilst BREEAM was a requirement set out in Westminster planning policy, the client recognised the benefits of BREEAM. Regular BREEAM workshops were held through the design process to ensure that credit requirements were incorporated into the design.
The building features a retained facade which has been thermally upgraded with new high performance windows. It benefits from exposed thermal mass, enhancing comfort and helping to smooth the temperature swings as crowds of visitors enter the store through the day.
Air source heat pumps provide low carbon heating and cooling to the retail spaces. In addition a large PV array and green roof was also provided.
Environmental features
The health and wellbeing of the staff and visitors to the flagship store was a priority, with dynamic thermal modelling used to predict the thermal comfort, and high quality lighting meeting CIBSE guidance on light levels.
During the project the design team and contractor took a lot of care in specifying and procuring:
- paints and sealants with ultra low VOC contents, and
- responsibly sourced materials / insulation.
The Energy Strategy sought to minimise CO2 emissions by enhancing the U values and air permeability, and selecting low carbon air source heat pumps, as well as high efficiency lighting.
The potable water consumption was minimised by careful specification of sanitary ware.
The ecological value of the site was enhanced by incorporating a green roof.
The construction of the site was fraught with complications working on a busy Charing Cross Road in Central London.
Future plans
Recognising the key issues at the outset of the project provided opportunities to design in solutions which reduced the environmental impact of the building. BREEAM consultants we were appointed at the start of the project to provide strategic advice.
MACE was committed to going beyond best practise as both a considerate constructor and through its efforts to minimise construction site impacts, aided by bespoke monitoring tools, and their ISO14001 management system compliance.
The BREEAM process has enhanced the wellbeing and comfort of the staff and visitors of the Foyles bookshop whilst providing a low energy flagship store.
Final Summary
The flagship store for Foyles is an exemplar retail store that has been built carefully and considerately using materials that are low polluting, have low embodied energy and are responsibly sourced.
The health and wellbeing of the staff and visitors to the flagship store was a priority, with dynamic thermal modelling used to predict the thermal comfort, and high quality lighting meeting CIBSE guidance on light levels as well as incorporating high frequency ballasts.
The energy strategy has promoted passive design utilising thermal mass and high levels of thermal insulation. Low carbon heat pumps and PV panels have substantially reduced the energy consumption and running costs.
The green roof has created valuable habitats as well as helping with the urban heat island effect.