• Howard De Walden Estate Logo
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47-53 Queen Anne Street – Commercial Office

The Howard de Walden Estate owns and manages a large portfolio of rental properties in Marylebone: a beautiful, historic area in the heart of London.  HDWE are developing the buildings at 47-53 Queen Anne Street into 2,600m2 of new offices and apartments behind the retained original façades of 4 townhouses.

The offices are designed to Breeam 2014 Excellent and the primary motivation for the LCA was to award credits under Mat01.  HDWE contracted eTool to complete a whole of building Life Cycle Assessment and the project earned the two bonus Mat01 credits available.

The study was completed towards the end of detailed design stage and did not specifically inform any changes.  However with the LCA analysis the design team was able to clearly understand all aspects of the buildings life cycle impacts and appreciate the differences that some of their sustainability initives made on the buildings’ quantified environmental performance.

eTool modelling software eToolLCD is compliant with the IMPACT methodology and datasets. The scope and system boundaries align with the requirements for the Life Cycle credit and the LCA model has been formally verified by the BRE.

Results Summary

Impact CategoryUnit                  Life Cycle Quantity

(Stage A-C)

Global Warming Potentialkg CO2e / m2

21

Acidificationkg SO2e / m2

0.25

Euthophicationkg PO4e / m2

0.042

Human Toxicitykg 1,4-DBe / m2

17

Project features

Materials

Lightweight cement has been specified to reduce the impacts of the floor areas.  Carpets have been removed from the design allowing the tenants to make their own sustainable choices. Retaining the facade reduces the impacts for the external walls compared to a business as usual re-build.

Operational Energy

Energy use accounted for the majority of the impacts. The use of roof mounted solar photovoltaics and innovative building integrated solar PV has reduced impacts from operational energy.

Benefits of using Life Cycle Design

Using the concept of functional unit (impact / m2 of net letable area) was fundamental in the Life Cycle analysis. This is a vital information to be considered during the design process to maximise building performance and functionality.

This assessment was conducted by Pat.

Pat Hermon