Lion House Offices, Alnwick

Lion House Offices, Alnwick
Lion House is an ultra low-emissions office
building designed and built for the Department
of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Situated in Alnwick, Northumberland, it is a
flagship development designed to achieve
exemplary standards of sustainability and
environmental performance.
In order to achieve many of the goals and
targets which Defra sets out in its Sustainable
Development Action Plan the office building
aimed to set an example for benchmarking the
benefits of embedding sustainable development
and energy efficient technologies in the design,
construction and operation of the new building.
The new office building was formed by two
blocks located south and east of the existing
offices which remained fully operational
throughout the construction period. Office
spaces, meeting rooms and breakout areas were
formed over two floors providing an internal
floor area of around 1600m².
From the outset it was the clear intent to design
the building to incorporate low energy
technologies and responsibly sourced materials
in order to maximise its environmental
performance, reduce carbon emissions and
achieve the highest practical BREEAM rating.
Sustainability
Case Study
Client/Project sponsor:
Defra Estates Division
Contractor:
Kier Northern
Architect:
Frank Shaw Associates / Gibberd
Building services:
Haden Young / Faber Maunsell
Structural engineer:
Faber Maunsell
Sustainability Consultant:
Element 4
BREEAM Assessor:
3 Planets
Cost Consultant:
Davis Langdon
Project Management:
Appleyards
CDM Co-ordinator:
CPS UK
Value:
£4.2m
Contract period:
69 weeks
Contract form:
NEC Option A
The project achieved a BREEAM Excellent,
scoring 80.72% under BREEAM Offices 2006.
The project was also selected as Winner of the
2008 BREEAM awards in the category of
BREEAM Offices.
The development performed well in the
assessment despite the rural nature of the site
limiting available credits in the transport
section. Full credits were however achieved for
management and water and very high scores
achieved within health and wellbeing and
energy sections. Within the energy credits the
development also achieved all of the credits
available for energy performance beyond the
current Building Regulations.

Early feasibility reports into a number of low
energy solutions were first carried out to assess
the viability and benefits from each major
technology and provide a carbon saving
assessment to determine what optimum
combination of technologies would potentially
achieve a net zero carbon emissions office. The
selected low energy technologies showed that
they would produce 48% less carbon dioxide
emissions than the Building Regulations Part L
2006 notional building. With the inclusion of
three 15kW wind turbines a further 80MWh of
electricity per annum could be generated and
potentially achieve net zero carbon in
operation.
A number of specific targets were set for the
project through a sustainability charter involving
all parties and this was monitored throughout all
stages of the project. These targets included
delivering a low carbon building; minimising
mains water consumption through selection of
low water use fittings and rainwater harvesting
having consumption less than Defra’s own
policy targets; achieving a BREEAM Offices
2006 rating of Excellent with a score of at least
76%; and responsibly sourcing materials using
such criteria as FSC, PEFC and ISO14001
standards.
The building was comprehensively modelled at
an early stage and this allowed the requirements
for low energy consumption to influence the
design of the building fabric and architectural
form. The building incorporates high levels of
thermal performance including the use
‘Thermafleece’ insulation and use of ‘A’ rated
Green Guide specifications for all major
elements.
The building takes advantage of maximising the
use of natural daylighting and predominant use
of natural ventilation. The orientation and
shading also permits utilisation of winter solar
gains. The completed building also achieved a
very impressive 3.84 m³/hr/m² for the air
permeability test.
The general offices spaces are naturally
ventilated using cross ventilation but capable of
being supplemented with mechanical
displacement ventilation to assist in off setting
peak summer internal temperatures or providing
heat recovery benefits in winter. A visible ‘traffic
light’ system is mounted on central ceilings
throughout the offices to inform occupants
when windows may be open in natural
ventilation mode and when mechanical
ventilation is operating.
Exposed thermal mass also allows the capability
of passive night cooling in order to maintain
optimum internal temperatures during warmer
times of the year.
In addition to developing a low base energy
demand for the building a range of renewable
energy technologies were incorporated to
ensure the building can meet its own energy
requirements from the predominant use of on
site generated power and heating. These
technologies included the following: -
A 48 kW biomass boiler capable of burning
wood chips or pellets and thermal store was
provided to meet 90% of the heating demand
and encourage sustainable development of the
local rural economy for sourcing of biomass
fuels.

Over 110m² of glass laminate photovoltaic cells
were provided to generate an anticipated
7000kWh of electricity per annum with added
capability of exporting excess electricity to the
local grid.
Additional benefits were achieved on the
scheme as the pv cells were arranged in such a
way as to provide solar shading on the south
elevation of the offices.
Solar thermal benefits were achieved from using
evacuated tube solar collectors sized to meet
the peak hot water storage demand over the
summer months and supplement pre-heating of
the hot water during cooler months.
The inclusion of three 15kW wind turbines
sized to meet a substantial proportion of the
buildings energy demand has been installed and
like the pv cells, are capable of exporting excess
electricity back into the local grid.
High efficiency lighting, designed to meet
adequate rather than excessive lighting levels,
were provided and linked to zoned, absence
and daylight linked controls.
Rainwater harvesting, low water use fittings,
sanitary supply shut off and leak detection was
incorporated and designed to ensure that overall
water consumption would be maintained well
below Defra’s water consumption policy targets.
Each of the technologies is continuously
monitored and linked to a visual display screen
in reception where staff and visitors alike can
clearly see the technology output contributions
and savings being achieved daily and
cumulatively