This project involved an extensive refurbishment and extension, delivering a stunning new headquarters for premium lifestyle brand, Joules. The scheme incorporated the construction of two new ‘barns’ along with a large atrium link between them and the fully refurbished retained elements of the existing Compass House. This created a new 60,000 sq ft facility, enabling the brand’s long-term growth and development in the UK and internationally.
Our building services experts provided mechanical and electrical building services for this workspace, inspired by the design of a country barn to mirror the brand’s heritage, with product design and creativity at its heart.
Our team worked closely with the architects, Edge, to sensitively integrate the new ‘exposed’ services strategy with the existing and new structural elements. This approach meant the purposefully exposed services had to be perfectly aligned against the pitched roof, in synergy with the ‘barn’ aesthetic.
To reduce the visual impact of the new ventilation services as well as to cut embodied carbon through reduced material use, the atrium is used as a return air plenum. This provides a duct-free path back to the roof-mounted air handling plant where waste heat from the extract air is recovered via thermal wheels and re-used to pre-heat the fresh air supply. The reduction of operational energy was a driving factor in the design brief from the outset. In response, the development uses the latest air source heat pump, high-efficiency heating and cooling technology and high efficiency, intelligently controlled lighting throughout to further cut CO2 emissions.
The project won the Midlands and Central England Corporate Workplace Award at the 2022 BCO awards.
Client: Joules Group Plc
Architect: Edge
