Karli Edmondson
Posted: Thursday, August 19, 2010 2:29 pm

The sustainable design and environmental benefits of Guildford's new entertainment venue have been recognised with a BREEAM 'Excellent' rating. 

BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) is the leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and is the measure used to describe a building's environmental performance. 

Cllr Nigel Manning, Lead Councillor for Procurement and Projects, says: "The BREEAM 'Excellent' rating is great news for this exciting project. The rating is higher than our target of 'Very Good', although we had always aspired to reach an 'Excellent’ score. We achieved the higher rating at no extra cost thanks to the hard work of our consultants and contractors. We continue to work with a number of partners to design, build and run a premier entertainment venue that local residents, visitors and businesses can enjoy into the future." 

The building was assessed by Scott Wilson's Sustainable Construction Team, who have given advice on the project since the early design stage. The building achieved a score of 74%, which exceeds the BREEAM 'Excellent' threshold of 70%. In addition to the overall 'Excellent' rating, the new venue also scored 90% of the available credits for management and water, and 96.5% for energy and transport. 

Mike Pauley of design and engineering consultant Scott Wilson, comments: "Through the high quality and collaborative work of the whole project team, we have been able to implement numerous environmental features to attain a high BREEAM rating. Once opened, this venue will continue to be of low environmental impact and provide an example of good sustainable design and construction to venues across the country." 

Norman King of architects Austin-Smith:Lord, adds: "The design team has worked closely with Willmott Dixon and with Guildford Borough Council to achieve this 'Excellent' BREEAM rating using the most economical and low maintenance options. We have successfully avoided expensive bolt on features and used natural ventilation, improved insulation with increased air tightness, careful selection of materials and provided a biomass boiler to assist in achieving our objective." 

Mark Tant, Managing Director at Willmott Dixon Construction, says: "As a company we are continually aware of the impacts our activities have on the surrounding environment. We aim to achieve high BREEAM ratings on all of our projects and set ourselves tough targets with regards to sustainability such as diverting 100% of waste from landfill by 2012 (this project is currently diverting 98.3% of its waste). The BREEAM score achieved by this project is a credit to all those who have worked on it to ensure that it really is an asset to its surrounding environment." 

When complete, the venue will offer a 1,000 seat or 1,700 standing capacity auditorium, a versatile studio space, two function rooms, five seminar rooms, bars and catering facilities.  

The build is on time and on budget and the Council is in the process of appointing an operator partner to run the venue on its behalf. The venue is set to open in autumn 2011.