海角视频

Brent Cross Town

London, UK

海角视频 is playing a key role in supporting developer Related Argent to deliver an ambitious, 拢8bn regeneration of Brent Cross in north London. We are acting as strategic energy and utilities advisor and providing engineering design across the extensive new utilities infrastructure required to enable the development to take shape.

The project is driving a major transformation of the district, building a vibrant community and ensuring the area delivers more than just its popular shopping centre.

Developer Related Argent and Barnet Council formed a joint venture with the vision to create a dynamic new town and flourishing neighbourhood over the next 20 years, featuring 6,700 new homes, 3 million ft虏 of offices, as well as a high street, schools and parks and playing fields.

Challenge

The site, which was formerly occupied by light industrial plots, will bring together 6,700 new homes as well as 50+ new retail and food and drink outlets, 50 acres of new green space, and provide workspaces for more than 25,000 people 鈥� building a community around health and wellness with fantastic new amenities.

Creating the infrastructure needed to support this abundance of development on the site will be a key enabler to the success of the new town.

The often constrained and congested subterranean spaces for new utilities infrastructure across the site would mean the new enabling interventions would have to be carefully planned and routed for maximum efficiency.

Brent Cross Town is aspiring to be carbon neutral by 2030, so it is critical that the energy strategy prioritises the most efficient, low carbon solutions at every stage.

Solution

To support the outline planning consent, our team carried out a detailed assessment of the existing infrastructure鈥檚 capacity and limitations, before developing a strategic plan for the suite of utilities upgrades that would be required across the entire site. We delivered below-ground utilities and drainage design, creating detailed, clash-detected, 3D design models to support the coordination of the utilities and drainage, and supported stakeholder engagement with all the adopting authorities.

The utilties strategy identified that off-site reinforcement for electrical power required a grid connection from 5km away. We saved the client a significant amount of money in reinforcement costs for the power connection by using a competitive process for procurement. We also secured the additional potable water demand, working closely with Thames Water to negotiate the supply, which required reinforcements to the water network.

We developed a smart grid strategy for the development, helping the client team to build an understanding of the opportunities around in-coming technologies and renewable energy generation. We also developed the sustainability and energy strategy, which explored the inclusion of solar PV panels on many of the buildings.

To create a future-proof neighbourhood, Brent Cross Town is taking a whole-life carbon approach, looking at the total carbon emissions of its buildings and public realm over its entire life.

The neighbourhood will benefit from an advanced electric on-site energy centre, which will supply heating and cooling via buried pipes.

We acted as technical advisor to Related Argent on the district energy concession which has resulted in them getting a significant contribution from Vattenfall. We also helped the client secure 拢10m of ‘green heat network’ funding.

We worked with Vattenfall to develop the energy centre which will utilise energy recycling from air-conditioning and low carbon air source heat pump technology. District heat networks share heat between properties instead of each having to generate its own. It鈥檚 a more efficient and greener way to provide heat and hot water to homes and businesses, especially when the heat comes from renewable and low carbon sources.

Utilities across the site are coordinated with buildings wherever possible, so infrastructure plant does not impede on the quality of the urban realm. Our team also developed the utilities design for the highways works required to deliver the capacity for the new town.

To support the delivery of a combustion-free energy centre at Brent Cross Town, our sustainability and building physics team undertook a detailed Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study to assess the potential for visible cold plumes forming above the Main Energy Centre (MEC). The analysis was commissioned in response to concerns that cold air discharged from the rooftop air source heat pump (ASHP) units could, under certain meteorological conditions, lead to fog formation that might affect visibility on the adjacent railway line.

Building on an earlier desktop risk assessment, our team developed a high-resolution CFD model to simulate plume behaviour under worst-case conditions. The study focused on a scenario with calm wind conditions, which had previously been identified as the most likely to result in significant plume spread. The updated model incorporated the latest design changes to the MEC building and fan unit configuration, including a shift from a V-bank to a flatbed arrangement of ASHP units.

The results confirmed that temperature differentials of more than two degrees below ambient 鈥� the threshold at which visible plumes are most likely to form 鈥� remained confined to the immediate area above the fan units. At the railway boundary, the maximum temperature differential was just one degree, which modelling showed would result in a negligible increase in fog occurrence 鈥� equivalent to only three to four additional hours per year. This provided reassurance to stakeholders, including Network Rail, that the risk to rail operations was minimal.

By combining advanced CFD techniques with machine learning insights from meteorological data, our team was able to provide robust evidence to inform the design development and planning process. The study not only helped to de-risk the project but also supported Vattenfall鈥檚 ambition to deliver a low-carbon energy centre that integrates seamlessly with its urban context.

Value

Barnet is one of London鈥檚 biggest boroughs, home to a diverse population of almost 400,000 people. The number of residents has increased by more than 27,000 in the last five years, among the fastest rates of growth in the capital. By 2030, the population is projected to increase to 450,000 people. Brent Cross Town will deliver 6,700 much needed new homes across the 180-acre site, alongside a wealth of new community facilities and workplaces. A new railway station has been developed to serve the site.

Throughout the development, we have acted as a strategic energy advisor, building a robust and efficient energy plan, while also providing insight and design input across the range of new utilities and infrastructure elements required to enable the development to take shape.

We also played a critical role in engaging with the local planning authority and Greater London Authority (GLA) to support the development through planning, as well as leading on negotiations with a range of service providers and utilities authorities.

海角视频 developed a net zero carbon energy solution which recycles waste heat from the air conditioning in offices to give hot water for the homes. Our work on the town planning has meant that each reserved matters planning application has been successfully granted.

As well as working directly for the client, we have also been further engaged by some of the contractors on the site to support their construction design, including VolkerFitzpatrick and Galldris. Our sustainability team was engaged to develop a 鈥淔lourishing Index鈥� assessment, to build a reliable picture of resident wellbeing and happiness.  

Our infrastructure, sustainability and ecology advisors are also playing a key role in the shaping of plans to upgrade the neighbouring Clitterhouse Playing Fields. We are helping to tackle flood risk and park design consent, with a vision to transform the site into a vibrant new public park, with a diverse range of community facilities and biodiverse green spaces.