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Project

Devonshire Building (UK)

Credits: ©2009 MetaEfficient/Justin

The Devonshire Building is a solar building, that automatically opens and closes banks of shades on its south facing façade. The intelligent system tracks the amount of sunlight entering the windows, and takes into account the time of day and season. The key architectural aim was to design a building that would incorporate as much natural daylight as physically possible. The blinds help manage overheating, and they are backed up by a geothermal cooling system. To top it all off, the building has solar modules on its roof that generate 25 kW of power. The building’s large roof area also allowed the construction of a rainwater harvest system. The rain is collected via a symphonic rainwater system and then fed into a 20,000 liter underground tank. If the rainwater tank overfills, it overflows to a 40,000 liter geothermal tank to replenish the water for a heat sink that acts as a cooling source for the building and services’ systems. The Devonshire Building was designed by the Dewjoc architecture firm. It is home to the Institute for Research and Sustainability at the University of Newcastle. The building’s large roof area also allowed the construction of a rainwater harvest system. The rain is collected via a symphonic rainwater system and then fed into a 20,000 liter underground tank. If the rainwater tank overfills, it overflows to a 40,000 liter geothermal tank to replenish the water for a heat sink that acts as a cooling source for the building and services’ systems. The Devonshire Building was designed by the Dewjoc architecture firm. It is home to the Institute for Research and Sustainability at the University of Newcastle.

 

Devonshire Building (UK)

Devonshire Building is a solar building, that automatically opens and closes banks of shades on it’s south facing façade. ©2009

Article
from Levolux
Sustainable solar shading for science structure.
The Devonshire Building is a landmark six-storey edifice in the heart of University of Newcastle’s campus and is due to become operational in April 2004. It will be home to the Institute for Research and Sustainability and the Regional E-Science Centre and is therefore a pioneering construction embracing recycled materials, renewable energy and solar power, reflecting the University’s commitment to the environment. climate responsive Levolux were brought in to provide solar shading to the glazed southern elevation of the building. Levolux 400mm aerofoil fins were fitted to steel ‘bow trusses’ and are motorised to operate in banks are controlled by light sensors and a Levolux Multicontroller. The louvres are also climate responsive and allow optimisation of daylight and solar penetration according to the time of day and the season. On the southern elevation Levolux also installed a newly designed, extruded aluminium, ‘J’ tread, ‘walk-on’ brise-soleil system, attached to the steelwork behind the aerofoils. Galvanised walkway was fitted on the north elevation. a fluid aesthetic façade solution Steve Halsall, project architect with The Dewjoc Partnership comments: “The prime objective to the building design was the integration of the solar shading with the façade design. Levolux took up the challenge by taking on a proactive role in the design development of the solar shading system, which has resulted in a fluid aesthetic façade solution.”