Rosalind Franklin Building

This science centre located in Wolverhampton’s City centre contains several teaching laboratories featuring innovative technologies such as laminar flow cabinets, safety cabinets and flow cupboards. The requirements of these labs meant the building services design had to be sufficiently flexible in order to meet the high air change rates as well as the ability to turn down air flow to save on energy consumption.

Cundall’s sustainability team helped the building achieve a BREEAM ‘Good’ rating. Energy saving measures included heat recovery coils for the once-through air handling units, turn down settings for the HVAC systems, mechanical heat recovery units for the toilet areas, and a CHP unit.

Rob van Zyl, Partner, commented "This flexible research laboratory provided fantastic new facilities for the University of Wolverhampton in an extension to an existing building. Retaining the structure of the existing building reduced the embodied carbon, but required intense coordination to accommodate the large, low-pressure and highly efficient ventilation systems within an existing structure."