University of Sussex

Project title: University of Sussex

Location: Brighton

Value: £250,000

Duration: 4 Months

Project Background

The University of Sussex educates over 10,000 students. The new £10 million Fulton building at the heart of the campus, provides 3,000 square meters of teaching space across three floors, including; Two 160 seat lecture theatres and a mix of 22 seminar rooms in varying sizes.

The building has been designed to minimise impact on the environment, with concrete floors acting as heat sinks and a natural ventilation system comprising of 24 roof-mounted extract terminals with cross talk attenuators to prevent noise transmission between classrooms and boost fans for extreme summer conditions.

Photo © Simon Carey (cc-by-sa/2.0)

The Project

The Client

Group SCS was commissioned by contractors Essex Services Group based on its value engineering approach which ensured a completely integrated building services package simplifying installation and reducing costs by 35%.

The Solution

Three separate systems were specified for the project: a building management system, window actuators and passive ventilation, with the three elements interfaced through the BMS. Group SCS designed software to allow the integration of ventilation, air conditioning, under-floor heating, hot water, smoke and natural ventilation.

Our Involvement

Automatic dampers control ventilation rates in the lecture rooms, 100 automatic actuators installed in high-level windows provide fresh air ventilation to the common areas and atrium. Group SCS also provided a large smoke control vent above the atrium to aid smoke clearance – this was not originally specified, but essential due to fire regulations and was easily incorporated into the final design.

Automatic dampers control ventilation rates in the lecture rooms

100 automatic actuators installed in high-level windows provide fresh air ventilation to the common areas and atrium

Large smoke control vent above the atrium to aid smoke clearance

Derek Culver, Project Manager Essex Services Group:

“We had a lot of trust in Group SCS’s delivery thanks to our experience of working with them on other big projects where they always provided excellent service. Their integrated approach simplified installation, reduced costs by 35 per cent and resulted in a more user friendly solution for the client.”