Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) has become the first higher education building to receive a rating of ‘Outstanding’ from the environmental performance measure BREEAM for both the design stage and post construction review. As building services engineer and BREEAM Assessor, Hoare Lea worked closely with the client, Lancaster University, and the project team, which included architect Sheppard Robson, to achieve a BREEAM final score of 85.16%.
The £10m LICA building is an inspiring purpose-built facility. Comprising 5,000m2 over three floors, it combines teaching and research activities in Art, Design, Film Studies, Music and Theatre Studies, as well as LIVE@LICA, which includes three public arts facilities: the Peter Scott Gallery, the Nuffield Theatre and the International Concert Series.
Reducing energy demand was central to the design and the pre-fabricated timber construction provides high levels of air tightness and contributes to low U-values. The design also includes roof-mounted solar photovoltaics and rainwater harvesting, both with live digital information displays in reception; low water-use sanitary fittings; energy sub-metering; lighting controls; displacement ventilation; 75% efficient thermal wheel heat recovery; and a link to the campus heating.
Mark Swindlehurst, Director of Facilities, Lancaster University said:
‘Lancaster University has a strong commitment to sustainability throughout its campus and Hoare Lea has worked with the University to achieve award-winning, BREEAM Excellent, sustainable buildings such as InfoLab21 and the Postgraduate Statistics Centre. LICA was the next step on this journey and we are delighted that the building has achieved BREEAM Outstanding.’
Project team
Client: Lancaster University
Project Manager: Christal Management Limited
Architect: Sheppard Robson
Building Services Engineer: Hoare Lea
Cost Consultant: Gardiner & Theobald
Structural Engineer: Sinclair Knight Merz
Landscape Architect: Ian White Associates
BREEAM Assessor: Hoare Lea
Acoustic Consultant: AEC
Main Contractor: Morgan Sindall
