Winnersh 820

Winnersh Triangle is a mixed business community between Reading and Wokingham in Berkshire. A significant block in the park was scheduled for demolition, to be replaced with offices. However, during the early stages of the project, and in order to respond to changing demands for high office content warehousing and workshop spaces, it was decided to reconfigure the existing building to provide an enhanced high office content warehouse.

The scheme needed to deliver a superior development with a façade that looked like a new build, with no indication of refurbishment, and that would sit comfortably with surrounding buildings. These include units clad in brick that are mainly used for Research and Development, and a high-end glazed office cluster.

Reusing the existing steel frame and ground bearing slab reduced costs and project length, while making embodied carbon savings equal to 894,300 kg of Co2. We saved 110.8 tonnes of primary steel for the frame and 4,180 tonnes of reinforced concrete for the foundations.

Throughout, services were designed to maximise energy efficiency with upgraded engineering systems, such as LED lighting and new mechanical heating and cooling. The workshop roof space included regularly spaced roof lights and PV panels and office plates benefit from predominantly northern light with full height windows. All of which helps reduce artificial lighting requirements and solar gains and the building now has an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of A.

New trees and planting along the proposed streetscape will in time provide seasonal colour, screening and enhance the biodiversity of the park and will form part of a site-wide strategy to create a strong legacy of mature trees.

On completion, the building was leased immediately.