Highlight in red: the civic heart of Oxford North.

The Red Hall, 1 and 2 Fallaize Street, and ‘Plot X’, which houses the cycle pavilion, central meadow landscape and a car park, make up the £93.3m, 150,000-square-foot Phase1A at Oxford North – the district being developed by Oxford North Ventures.

Meanwhile, The Hill Group is busy building the first 317 of the 480 homes coming forward – already healthily presold as part of the 64-acre masterplan on land owned by St John's College – and there is detailed consent for three further laboratory buildings suited to a range of company needs.

We contributed Acoustics, Air Quality, Audiovisual, Building Physics, CGI, Fire Engineering, Intelligent Buildings, Lighting Design, MEP, Security, Sustainability, Utilities, and Vertical Transportation expertise to Phase 1A.

It comprises two purpose-built laboratory buildings as well as The Red Hall – a workspace totalling 33,000 square feet over four floors with a public amenity area at ground level. We’re talking town hall, café, coworking space, central square, and Fallaize Park – a two-acre green space showcasing ‘Your planetary assembly’. This is the first permanent public work in the UK by Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson.

From the outset, the client made it clear that innovation was crucial. This was primarily to ensure the development stood out from the crowd, and to help with securing planning. They were also looking to minimise external plant and equipment, as the architectural scheme agreed from an early stage used pitched roof lines, which are difficult to integrate external plant with discreetly.
Planners were concerned by the risk of intrusive light from artificial lighting systems, in terms of both local ecological impact and neighbouring residential areas.

Challenging the default approach of a carbon-intensive energy centre, we put forward a site-wide ground-source energy system with a fifth-generation ambient loop to allow energy sharing between buildings and plots. Our all-electric, low-carbon future-proofing was seen favourably by planners.

Phase 1A’s 1MW centralised ground-source energy centre comprises over 70 closed-loop boreholes and connectivity with future phases to allow passive energy sharing. It serves satellite plant rooms in each building.

This efficient use of space ensured the individual buildings only needed small plant rooms to exchange heat with the central plant. Main plant rooms and risers were delivered using Design for Manufacturer (DfMA), using Laing O’Rourke’s off-site prefabrication facility. Large PV arrays – 1400m2 – are also spread across the first three buildings of Phase 1A.

We worked closely with architect Fletcher Priest to develop an internal lighting scheme that sensitively delivered a high quality, practical internal environment minimising outside spill. We were also able to inform the selection of internal finishes and colours to help reduce reflection to outside.

The first phase of the project involved a great deal of complexity with multiple plots/buildings being delivered under different contracts – our team provided valuable technical input to simplify integration of the different tech systems and ensure a more seamless end-user experience. We also helped procure a much higher quality and more resilient internet connection to the site.

As well as a low-carbon, all-electric heating and cooling strategy equipped for the future, and a much more integrated ICT strategy across all buildings and the external landscape, we provided whole life carbon assessments through to completion, which gave the client great visibility of how the project was performing from start to finish.