Low-Carbon Manchester Building May Be New Home To Virgin Media
ECF’s new Eden development in Manchester may become the new city-centre hub for Virgin Media, Place Northwest reports. The site offers 115,000 sq ft of office space, which more than meets Virgin’s reported requirements of 60,000 sq ft.
The new hub must also be carbon net zero, which makes it a perfect fit for the Eden building, which offers high sustainability credentials. Virgin are looking to relocate staff based at three offices around Manchester into a central hub, in line with their facilities at Reading.
However, the Eden building won’t be fully completed for another two years. The cutting-edge low carbon design will feature what is described as ‘Europe’s largest living wall.’
Phil Marsden, project director at Muse Developments, said: “Eden is designed to be net zero carbon in operation, achieving the UKGBC interim energy intensity targets for operational energy. We’ve accumulated a huge amount of knowledge over the past 18 months on how to extract the maximum from technology and resources for sustainability purposes.”
He added: “Some building projects that have suddenly changed focus to become more carbon efficient have struggled to find the resource to do so in both construction and the operation of those buildings. It’s vital that these requirements are embedded into the brief from the very start.”
Muse Developments are part of the ECF group, which is aiming to achieve a 5.5 NABERS rating for the structure. This is one of the highest ratings to indicate levels of sustainability in the operation of the building. It will feature enhanced demand-controlled ventilation, CO2 monitoring, zero fossil fuels, and renewable energy sources.
As well as looking attractive, the living wall will be home to thousands of plants, insects, and birds, and remove toxins from the atmosphere. Surprisingly, ECF claim that the extra mile in terms of green credentials has only increased costs by 3%.
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