Skanska has announced that the company reached a construction milestone at The Earnshaw Building project earlier this month
The Earnshaw Building project will include two separate buildings – one of which will be a mixed-use commercial office building, alongside a building consisting of residential apartments. Both buildings will have retail and restaurant units located on the ground floor.
Digital technology is being used to create modern and sustainable buildings
John Crawley, operations director, commented: “From an early stage, reducing carbon emissions on this project has been a top priority for us and our customer, Royal London Asset Management. The aim is to create modern and sustainable buildings that provide places for people to live, work and enjoy.
“To achieve these goals, we are using digital technology so we can find solutions that meet our customer’s bespoke requirements, which means this building will be smart enabled when it’s finished.”
A smart building uses automated processes to control how it is operated to make it more efficient including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, security, and other systems. This saves energy, reduces costs and provides an enhanced experience for the people who will use the building’s facilities.
The team installed software and field wiring at The Earnshaw Building, which will allow all the systems such as the energy monitoring system and building management system to communicate seamlessly in a language commonly known as a single pane of glass (SPoG).
It continuously collects data about how the building is being used and uses this valuable information to tailor how the building is operated to meet the customer and occupants’ bespoke requirements.
Built with sustainability in mind
A 3D Revit model was used to prefabricate the main plantroom’s pipework, including the riser pipework, which removed the need for these services to be delivered in smaller more labour-intensive lengths.
When The Earnshaw Building is finished, occupants and tenants will benefit from electric boilers instead of using gas to heat the building, supplying greener power, and allowing them to use cheaper tariffs offered by utility companies.
The buildings are targeting environmental accreditations which include BREEAM Outstanding for the commercial office space and BREEAM Excellent for the rest of the development, as well as a WELL Core and Shell Gold certification.
Work on the 260,000 sqft project began in May last year and is due to finish in the second quarter of 2023.
