Feasibility Study of the Old Debenhams Store - Example

IED Rehab, Feasibility study of the old Debenhams store The following report is a feasibility study, where I have to come to a conclusion after examining the various aspects of the process like ventilation etc, whether or not it would be a good idea to rehabilitate and refurbish the old Debenhams store instead of demolishing it. The report seeks to look at the environmental credentials of the chosen rehab materials and carbon dioxide reductions that they will make. The report will also seek to recommend a system of ventilation and look at its pros and cons. It will also try and examine the issues of thermal mass, absorption gains along with those of mixed use, office, commercial and residential. The building that has been chosen is 7 storeys. The anticipation therefore, is to make the lower three as shops and storage, the next two offices and the rest apartments. The point of contention that is being examined in the report is simple: Can we achieve natural ventilation in the building, conceptually how will it be achieved after examining the higher standards of insulation brought through the trespa system. There is also an attempt to understand the possibility of heat exchange system? History of the store: The history of the store goes back to 1456 when a document regarding the lease of shops in the High Street "opposite 'Le Newe Inne' in the Parish of St. Stephen". The New Inn was appropriately, newly built on land that belonged to both the Chapter and the Chamber (the Cathedral and the City). The inn was long a point of issue between the Cathedral and City for its encroachment onto city land. Over the years, the inn was remodeled and its rooms adapted for various uses. It went into various phases from being le Egle, opposite the Guildhall to the New Inn. It was established in 1555 when it was described as "..a commodious hall for all manner of clothe, Lynnen or wollyn, and for all other m'chandises an w ch shalbe called the m'chants hall." The history of Debenhams starts with a business opened in Margate during 1887, when a Mr F J Bobby bought an already established drapery store. In March 1962, work started on the new Bobbys, at the junction of Sidwell Street and the High Street, to drive the piles into the ground that would form the foundations. With Bovis Ltd as the main contractor, 340 men and 60 subcontractors worked to complete the 140ft, 123,000 sq m, seven storey, concrete and steel building, in 25 months. On 5th March 1964 the building was opened by the Mayor. The new store employed 250 people trading on six floors and 60 different departments. A special design feature was the restaurant on the top floor which catered for 300 customers and has a 50 ft long window giving views across the city to the Haldon Hills. It has been said he basement was built to be nuclear bomb proof and could be used by the authorities in a national emergency. On 8th December 1972 the store was renamed Debenhams in a move to consolidate the Debenhams name across the UK. In 1987, the Times did a survey of the worst buildings in Britain and the Debenhams building made it into the top 10. The building gives a great view across the city from the restaurant on the top, and it is often used for abseiling events to raise money for charity. The roof is also a favorite for letting off fireworks at Christmas and New Year. It has been When Land Securities decided to redevelop Princesshay, an important feature of the plan was for a large department store as the flagship business of the development. Within a short time of the announcement of the plans, Debenhams had negotiated an option on the new facility. The new Debenhams, in Bedford Street has twice the floor area of the old store. The old store now lies vacant and is thus the subject of further controversy and the topic for the following report. The proposal: The proposal now is to remodel the building which has seven floors so that there is enough room to accommodate the first four floors as shops and storage area, along with a floor of office space and the rest can be used as apartments. The design on the top of the building which has a view of the city is in fact ideal for the construction of penthouse apartment blocs. The area now is a thriving retail shopping centre with stores such as Harlequin, the Guildhall Shopping Centre and Marks and spencer being among the many stores that are located. The site therefore is prime locale situated at the junction of Sidwell Street and Paris Street. The idea here is that there has to be the recommendation of materials that can be used in order to refurbish and remodel the building so as to reduce the adverse impact that new construction would obviously have on the environment. In this context it can be said that the impact that buildings have on the environment can be enumerated under three general headings: through the supplies and resources that are used in their construction; through the energy that is required in the operation and the running of the building through the waste produced through their creation, operation and disposal: In order to figure out whether or not the construction of the building is feasible or not it would first be interesting to look at some of the figures relating to construction and the impact that it has on the world environment on a day to day basis. 60% of the raw materials that are used around the world on a day to day basis are utilized in construction or the creation of buildings The carbon dioxide problem which is such a raging issue that traffic monitoring has become part and parcel of anti pollution methods. It is therefore interesting to note here that 53% of human created carbon dioxide in fact has its source in the heating, lighting and ventilation of buildings; And despite the figures 20% of all construction matter are unused and thus find their way in from construction sites to landfills. The idea in the light of these figures is to achieve two basic objectives. First is to reduce the waste matter that would be produced through the demolition of the old building and construction of a new one and second, to ensure that the remodeling of the old building is done is such a way so as to use environmentally friendly products and provide as much scope to natural ventilation as is possible. The building location and design is such that any kind of commercial or residential offering would be sold out as it is surrounded by the best of retail chains. The access to traffic and to other amenities would be easy. Further it is also true that in the middle of a busy and bustling street like Paris and Sidwell avenues any kind of further retail or commercial space would see brisk business. It would therefore appear to be pretty clear that environmentally speaking at least it would be better to refurbish and remodel the building than to tear it down and construct a new one at its place. Basically, what has to be ensured that the demands of sustainability are maintained. Sustainability could a number of things to a number of people. It is in fact a subjective concept by itself. However, the generally accepted definition has been put forward by Gro Harlem Brundtland as: ‘Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Any definition of a concept which is as fluid in its nature as sustainability obviously is needs to take measure of the economic, social, cultural as well as environmental context. There are number of systems that can be employed to ensure a better natural ventilation system during construction or remodeling. Some of these materials and methods used to design proper natural ventilation systems in buildings are solar chimneys, wind towers, and summer ventilation control methods. Most of them come in package with a definite set of pros and cons that take into consideration the weather system, the site of construction, levels of heating etc. It would therefore be tough to work under the constraints that are put forward by these restrictions. There are however a few barriers that can be identified with regards to natural ventilation systems of any kind. There are building and fire restrictions that need to be kept in mind. There is also the need to protect the structure from noise and chaos. Devices for shading, privacy & day lighting may hamper the free flow of air and most of all problems with automatic controls in openings need to be dealt with. There therefore needs to be in place a ventilation system that would compliment the demands of remodeling along with being eco friendly and cost effective. The system of ventilation that the report suggests here on the basis of research and analysis done in the context of the building is the Trespa System of ventilation. In accordance with the system there are ventilated screens that provide a gap or a space between the cladding and the outer wall of the building. This is probably an absolutely perfect and ideal place where the insulation material can be installed. The system also ensures the automatic removal of elements like rain water, moisture and condensation that are a cause for the non viability of a number of many other natural ventilation systems. The reason for this is very simple. The removal of the unsolicited elements ensures that the material stays in good condition and is in effective working conditions over a longer duration of time. Another point that adds to the positives of the Trespa system is the fact that, rust and/or mold cannot exist in an environment which has no kind of catalyst to support their survival. This happens by virtue of the fact that there is no moisture retention on the material. The system makes use of something known as the Trespa Meteon Paneling. These are moisture and weather resistant. Not only would the system ensure a better room for natural ventilation it would also aid in the aesthetic improvement of the building structure thereby giving one the scope to play around with the remodeling plans. This would therefore help in the automatic reduction of the costs that need to be incurred to maintain the building while ensuring that there is no need to compromise on its aesthetics. Ventilated façades find application all over the world today by virtue of the fact that they are weather resistant and would give any architect the scope to give vent to his creativity while meeting the requirements of construction. Unlike a solar chimney (which would probably be one of the candidates to meet the present requirement of remodeling) an effective solution where prevailing that is dependable in paces where the weather acts predictably. In any example of the weather being out of character the ventilation system falls flat on its face. It is here in fact that the rationale for chosing the Trespass system becomes evident. It does not seek to play around with the natural conditions and has in effect no waste matter or residue that could be harmful to the environment. What it does is that it created a two leaf construction for the external wall, several - sometimes contrary - functions can be separated and optimized while the ventilated air space between the two leaves serves to preserve the applied materials and to maintain a healthy indoor climate. Another aspect of the system is a flat architectural panel that is basically built for the purpose of ventilated façades. It is light-weight, durable and weather resistant, the panel’s surface and core are impermeable and therefore not affected by rain and condensation. There are in UK two basic issues that can be identified with weather related issues that necessitate ventilation in a structure. No matter what the time of year it is, moisture is always an issue and can seriously affect the overall performance of a building. The ventilated space as provided by the system has multi faceted advantages. The air in the designed cavity will circulate due to air pressure differentials and thermal differentials over the height of the building. In a cold climate this causes the condensation water at the rear of the cladding to dry. In a warm climate the moving air will cool the inner layers of the construction and thus reduce the demand for cooling energy. In a cold climate, moisture is likely to affect the exterior walls of the building. Heated inside, the low outside temperature will lead to - condensation, which if allowed to accumulate, may cause permanent structural damage. It is also a big plus that the system can also incorporate sound attenuation and that it is made in a wide variety of skins to match building roof and wall cladding. The other kind of ventilation system that can be made of in combination with the Trespa System would be the CHP boiler. Basically, domestic condensing boilers fit into the scheme of energy saving in a manner that is identifiable with that of the Micro CHP boilers. These are basically a water heating device that makes use of energy produced by heating that would otherwise go waste. If the boiler is working in the manner that it is supposed to, a big part of the water vapor that is produced in the process of combustion is made to condense back into liquid form. This releases latent heat. Most of the time boilers run on natural gas which is largely methane but can also, at times operate with LPG or oil. These are not really environment friendly ventilators because they run on fossil fuel thereby contributing to global warming. The conclusions that can be drawn from the report therefore are: 1. The building that is in question would be ideal for further remodeling and refurbishing. There are in theory at least two factors that contribute to it being ideal; for remodeling. It is a 7 story structure which is ideally to the purposes of the development firm and provides just the kind of division that is needed to accommodate all of the firm’ s plans. 2. The building is located in a prime spot that would almost guarantee its economic and commercial viability 3. There are environmental and ecology related criteria that need to be kept in mind while making the decision not just about not demolishing the building but also about the material that is being chosen for its refurbishment. 4. The ventilation system that is most ideally suited to the building design and its environmental concerns is the Trespa system of ventilation. There are a number of factors that stand in favor of this choice, most of all because they do not require the inputs of raw material, thereby leaving behind no residue. The system also ensures that there is no requirement of further construction of a tampering with at least the outer dimensions of the structure. The trespa system also appears to contribute to the beautification of the building that had in fact once been in the top 10 of the worst structures in UK. 5. There are other systems of ventilation that can be used but none of them are weather resistant on the scale of the Trespa system nor as eco friendly. Reference: Urban Design, accessed May 5, 2009, http://www.devon.gov.uk/index/environmentplanning/planning-system/urban_design/parisstreetproposals.htm Natural Ventilation, accessed May 5, 2009, http://www.wbdg.org/resources/naturalventilation.php Lecture Air movement and Natural Ventilation, accessed May 5, 2009, http://www.arch.hku.hk/teaching/lectures/airvent/sect03.htm Engineered Natural Ventilation systems, accessed May 5, 2009, http://www.infolink.com.au/c/HH-Robertson-A-Div-of-Metecno/Engineered-Natural-Ventilation-Systems-from-HH-Robertson-p14352 Condensing Boilers, accessed May 5, 2009, http://www.envocare.co.uk/condensing_boilers.htm Read More