Cyril Le Marquand House | St Helier | Jersey
CLIENT Dandara Jersey Ltd
LOCATION St Helier, Jersey
DURATION 2020-2025
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To construct a new headquarters for the Government of Jersey, consolidating the majority of departments into a single location, along with a media suite for press conferences, and to create a public-facing space to deliver various services.
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VZDV was employed to produce detailed tender and contract stage information for the MEP services. VZDV was subsequently retained by Dandara in a monitoring role during the construction stage.
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To create a modern building that fulfilled various functions, while creating a benchmark on the Island for an energy-efficient building aligned with the government’s Pathway 2050 policy.
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The Island poses unique challenges; some products or techniques available in the UK construction industry simply cannot be supported on the Island. VZDV’s experience in commercial developments in Jersey dating back to 2003 means we were best placed to deliver a building with unique and ambitious requirements, while respecting the constraints of the local market.
In proud collaboration with:
Government of Jersey, Dandara Jersey Ltd, Axis Mason and Walsh Goodfellow
BACKGROUND
The Government of Jersey put out to tender to local developers the opportunity to construct a new headquarters for the Government of Jersey. The new building had to consolidate the majority of departments into a single location, along with a media suite for press conferences, and create a public-facing space to deliver various services.
THE OBJECTIVE
To create a modern building that fulfilled various functions, while creating a benchmark on the Island for an energy-efficient building aligned with the Government’s Pathway 2050 policy.
VZDV have a longstanding and successful relationship with Dandara, the Island’s largest commercial developer, and were approached by them to assist in their bid.
After Dandara was awarded the project they employed VZDV to produce detailed tender and contract stage information for the MEP services. VZDV was subsequently retained by Dandara in a monitoring role during the construction stage.
THE CHALLENGE
The Government of Jersey have unique requirements compared to other commercial tenants as the building must fulfil several roles not typically associated with an office development. In addition to providing office and meeting room space, the building also must fulfil a public-facing role. Other unique features include the requirement for a media suite used for televised press conferences, and secure areas due to the nature of work of some Governmental departments, and enhanced levels of security throughout.
From an engineering point of the building had to accommodate an occupancy density well in excess of most commercial developments and resilience.
The Government produced a Key Requirements document that stipulated the need for high levels of energy efficiency, and the requirement to achieve an EPC A rating and BREEAM Excellent as a minimum.
THE DEFINING MOMENT
VZDV conducted extensive energy modelling during the concept design stages to optimise the building’s form and agree performance parameters for the glazing to find the optimum balance between useful light without creating excessive solar gain.
The modelling yielded a ‘shopping list’ of techniques and systems applied in different combinations to achieve the Government’s energy targets. This allowed whole life cycle cost-based decision-making around which techniques or products are best suited to meet the brief.
THE TRANSFORMATION
The building is heated and cooled via high-efficiency air source heat pumps with the ability to recover energy. The Island imports the majority of its electricity from France and due to the high percentage of nuclear power generation the carbon intensity of the French grid is much lower than that of for example the UK. The use of an electrified heat source means the building’s carbon footprint is minimised, with the ability to be zero carbon.
A photovoltaic array installed at roof level generates 63,000 kWh per annum which equates to a 12.6% reduction through the use of PV alone.
The development targets a BREEAM Excellent rating, and under the Ene01 criteria for reducing energy use and carbon scores a maximum of 15 credits.
The building targets an EPC A rating and achieves a 48% betterment beyond the current Part 11 requirements of the Building Byelaws in Jersey.
LEARNINGS
The Island poses unique challenges; some products or techniques available in the UK construction industry simply cannot be supported on the Island. VZDV’s experience in commercial developments in Jersey dating back to 2003 means we were best placed to deliver a building with unique and ambitious requirements, while respecting the constraints of the local market.
NEXT STEPS
We are always keen to talk to responsible developers or tenants with unique requirements, including low carbon and energy aspirations.
Van Zyl & de Villiers (VZDV)
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