A scheme which manages to be “carbon minus” by using horse dung to generate energy on site will be highlighted during an event to mark World Green Building Week which starts on 17 September.
The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery have moved into their new carbon minus home at Napier Lines in Woolwich, Greenwich. Scott Brownrigg was responsible for the design and planning of the new £16m development on behalf of Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and Morgan Sindall. It provides stabling and full support facilities for 170 horses as well as provision for the troop’s gun carriages.
Sustainability has been the driving feature of the BREEAM “excellent” development, which incorporates a ground-breaking biomass plant, the first of its kind in the country, using renewable energy derived from horse manure and bedding to produce sufficient bio-fuel to supply the needs of the development. It also allows surplus fuel to be exported off-site, making it truly carbon minus.
In addition, the development includes solar chimneys, which provide natural stack ventilation to the horse stables; rainwater harvesting, which provides large volumes of water for general use in the stables, and reduces water use throughout the site; and sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDs) which manage surface water drainage on site, including soakaways.
Ed Hayden, associate architect at Scott Brownrigg, responsible for the design of the facility, said: “From day one, we envisaged the creation of a ‘carbon minus’ design, creating a facility which would provide more energy than it would consume; sustainability was therefore one of the key drivers. The architecture is simple, elegant and robust, reusing elements of the existing buildings where possible, and creating axes and views onto adjacent heritage landmarks.”
The September talk forms part of a series of events in Open-City’s Green Sky Thinking Week 2012, which gives an inside view from top experts, industry leaders and collaborative teams of how we could move towards successfully “greening” entire districts and neighbourhoods, as well as buildings. Details of this and other activities in Green Building Week can be found here: www.ukgbc.org/content/world-green-building-week-2012-calendar
