Project Background
The impressive new Bournville Gardens Retirement Village in Birmingham is to accommodate elderly residents across 212 homes and offer a wide range of recreational and medical facilities.
The core landmark building at the site is an Extra Care Facility comprising self-contained homes with design features and support services to offer a balance of independent living and specialist assistance when required.
This curved building, with its intricately-designed atrium, features both smoke and climate control governed by a variety of systems, all with the client-set requirement to communicate and integrate with a core Trend controller.
Photos © Stride Treglown
The large retirement village featured two MCC units (one dedicated to smoke control systems and the other focused on atrium control). The system also integrated boiler room and AHU plant control, linking with the controlling Trend system.
This £240k project also featured Trend integration into other key systems, such as VRM, electrical metering and even the building’s exterior lights.
The atrium at the site is of particular interest, presenting a control challenge with its curved architecture and the need for phasing of open-and-closing window actuators, designed to regulate temperature in the area. This natural ventilation system requires a particularly clever arrangement of controls with unique a cause-and-effect protocol for the 80+ actuators across its curved surface. With our Building Automation’s solution, all these systems were run through the Trend controller, (including the smoke control), and all with a maintained power supply.
Our Involvement
Our unique approach to project management and value engineering led to a completely bespoke solution that fitted the layout and intended use of the new development perfectly. By successfully integrating the atrium’s complex ventilation system with other controls, the building becomes more user-friendly and efficient than it would otherwise have been.
The head-end graphics were also supplied by Group SCS Building Automation, with a focus on usability and simple system monitoring. Controlling each system through the same Trend controller kept costs down, saving the customer considerable money and install time.
Integrating the atrium’s complex ventilation system with other controls
Trend integration into other key systems, such as VRM, electrical metering and even the building’s exterior lights
All systems were run through a Trend controller
Smoke control 