A new DWP office providing a new regional home for the UK Government is the latest addition to Blackpool City Council’s £350m Talbot Gateway regeneration project, aimed at stimulating the local economy and optimising sustainability.
The 215,000sqft office building in the town centre is the largest commercial building in Blackpool since The Blackpool Tower, and will bring over 3,000 workers into the area when it opens in early 2025.
Built by Vinci Building and Muse on behalf of Blackpool Council, the ultra-low energy office has been designed to achieve BREEAM Excellent. Engineering consultants Hannan Associates has been responsible for delivering the building services.
sustainable design
Air source heat pumps provide heating and cooling, with demand-driven ventilation from Gilberts Blackpool optimising energy efficiency and indoor air quality.
Discreet supply and extract for the ventilation is provided predominantly via Gilberts’ GSL linear slot diffusers in continuous lengths up to 7.5m and JSL high-capacity linear slot diffusers in continuous lengths up to 6m long. The linear effect of the diffusers enhances a clean, professional aesthetic to compliment the working environment.
A combination of GTD concealed swirl diffusers, GSFA premium fixed swirl diffusers and, concealed behind ceiling tiles, PG perforated face diffusers ensures efficient distribution of fresh air and exhaust of used air across the open plan floor areas.
These have been used in reception, conference room and workspaces to achieve continuity of design and maintain comfort conditions for the staff, regulating flow and thus managing energy depending on occupancy levels. The omnidirectional horizontal air flow of the swirl diffusers achieves rapid intermixing which helps eliminate risk of any draughts or cold spots.
Cllr Mark Smith, Blackpool Council’s Cabinet Member for Economy and Built Environment said: “The impact of this building in Blackpool goes way beyond just bricks and mortar. Bringing 3,000 workers into the town centre is creating an economic stimulus for the town and creating more jobs, while the contract itself has been designed to create a local value by hiring local residents and sub-contracting to Blackpool companies like Gilberts.”
carbon reduction
The seven-storey office building will not only become home to more than 3000 DWP staff, centralising some of the Government’s regional operations, but will also contribute towards the Department’s sustainability strategy to reduce carbon. Whole life and upfront embodied carbon for the King St Blackpool office is calculated to be 800KgCO2/m2 against the 1100KgCO2/m2 of a typical conventional office block.
Gilberts has a significant portfolio of delivering ventilation solutions for high-end office projects, including Google’s London offices, Birmingham’s tallest office building the BREEAM Excellent 103 Colmore Row, the Grade II listed India Building Liverpool and Twitter’s LEED platinum EMEA headquarters in Dublin.
Founded some six decades ago, today family-owned Gilberts’ 140,000 ft2 head office and manufacturing facility includes its own research and development and test facilities, enabling it to continue to evolve its product range and develop bespoke solutions for specific client requirements. Gilberts is now acknowledged as the UK’s leading independent air movement specialist, offering mechanical, natural and hybrid ventilation solutions. Its product ranges divide into air distribution, natural ventilation, architectural and external louvres plus smoke, fire and volume control.
Over the years Gilberts has built a reputation for providing an extensive range of attractively styled, contemporary, value engineered products at the best in competitive prices. With comprehensive internal and external technical sales support the company is able to provide very high standards of customer service and can respond quickly and efficiently to the many and varied demands of the building services industry.
All Gilberts’ products, standard lines and bespoke solutions, are designed and developed in accordance with BS EN ISO 9001:2015 quality standard in the company’s state of the art 140,000 ft2 facility in Blackpool.