Arup Campus, Solihull
Architect & Engineer Arup Associates
Client Arup
It is not surprising that when the architects ^
Arup Associates, the lighting designers ^ Arup
Lighting, get together with the engineers ^
Ove Arup and Partners, that the resulting
offices built in Solihull for themselves should
be state of the art; where the daylighting is
linked with the artificial lighting, which
together with the passive structure, has led to
a comfortable low energy and sustainable
architecture.
The building has a general north-west,
south-east orientation, an orientation designed
to optimize the natural lighting whilst
respecting the site’s constraints and
optimizing use of the available space. Looking
at the exterior of the building, it is not
surprising that it is known affectionately by
the locals as the ‘chicken shed’ due to the
projecting roof pods placed at intervals along
the roof line.
These pods are the key to the success of the
natural environment, incorporating skylights
to ensure good levels of light penetration to
the central areas of the offices; whilst at the
same time incorporating louvres to enable
stack effect ventilation, forming a part of the
environmental control strategy for the
building.
The building consists of two parallel
pavilions of two storeys each, approximately
60 m long by 24 m deep, designed to minimize
the number of levels in the building, with
mezzanines and floor openings used to
maximize internal staff communication, with
good light penetration to the lower levels.
To ensure good control of glare, the glazing
to the north-east and south-west fac° ades is
minimized, whilst the use of external solar
shading to the southerly fac° ades ensures that
the solar heat gain is prevented from entering
the building, enabling the strategy of natural
ventilation to be effective. All of the main
elevations incorporate shading devices to
control solar gain, and where occupants are
seated close to a window manually operated
louvres allow personal control, to reduce local
heat gain.On the south-east double height fac° ade,
where users are not seated close to windows,
electrically operated exterior blinds are
controlled by the building management
system with manual override. On the
northern elevation manually operated interior
blinds are available when needed, as the
reduction in direct solar penetration is not as
critical.
A sophisticated system of control is used for
the artificial lighting, designed to incorporate
both proximity control sensing, and daylight
linking; in which combined sensors are
integrated into the light fittings. The lighting
units were specially developed for the campus,
as a part of the overall lighting strategy.
The light fittings contain both indirect
uplighting and direct downlighting; but it has
been found in operation that the amount of
the upward light can be reduced, as the level
of natural light is more than sufficient, in
which the spaces appear light and airy even on
comparatively overcast days.90 Daylighting: Natural Light in Architecture
Section of model to illustrate the daylighting
Arup