Build It In A Day
By Alex Housden, MEPC
A recent day-long event at the National Brownfield Institute, part of the University of Wolverhampton, allowed the entire project team working on Three Chamberlain Square to really explore the unique aspects of this groundbreaking new building.
Working with our consultants and contractors like Cundalls, Fathful & Gould and SRM, we were able to bring the building to life across a full 360 degree presentation facility – the Igloo.
The project team behind Three Chamberlain Square has adopted a Design for Performance approach to the design phase, resulting in a highly efficient and sustainable design which has already picked up significant industry accreditations such as a BREEAM Outstanding Design Stage assessment, a first for the West Midlands.
Main construction work started earlier this year and the core of the building can currently be seen rapidly emerging from the site next to the Town Hall, along Paradise Street in the very heart of Birmingham.
An integral part of the Paradise masterplan, Three Chamberlain Square is a cutting edge new commercial building offering 189,000 sq ft of office space as well leisure and retail units on the ground floor along with a large reception and communal areas encouraging easy circulation not just to and from the building, but also around the inside of it.
With new public realm adjacent, the building will soon be at the heart of activity and pedestrian flow around Paradise and an essential new workspace for the city.
But the most unique part of this building and its offer to discerning occupiers is its approach to ESG and its ability to support organisations who may occupy it, as well as Paradise itself, on the road to net zero.
Using modern methods of construction and with a focused effort to examine every step of the design and construction process has allowed the design and delivery team to make significant material – and carbon – savings across the building.
This is what our Build It In A Day event was all about. With a focus on finding solutions and by testing ideas in front of senior engineers, designers, construction experts and the development team, further progress was made in understanding the cycle of the whole project and reducing the carbon impact of the building. Sustainability is, and will remain, at the heart of Three Chamberlain Square.
Using the fantastic facilities at the Brownfield Institute, which includes their 360 degree projection facility, enabled us to assess things at scale and in real time.
And it wasn’t just the engineers and architects sharing their perspectives; we also heard from the likes of Charlie Toogood from Avison Young and Will Ventham from CBRE updating us on the Birmingham office marketplace and current trends – including occupier demand for even more sustainable workplaces as well as high quality wellness and wellbeing provisions for their employees.
Planning and executing a project to this detail is an essential way of working for all of our developments large and small. With our commitment to delivering a new piece of the city that is game changing not just for Birmingham but also the wider region, we hope we can be a beacon of best practice and proof that sustainability is not an add-on, but the only way we can proceed.