Stelrad radiators are responsible for sharing the heat around an impressive new office building – Endeavour House – in the new home of marine enterprise in Britain’s Ocean City – Plymouth.
This impressive project occupies a 35 hectare site at the southern edge of Devonport dockyard and has a BREEAM rating of Excellent. The offices within Endeavour House all feature Stelrad Concord designer radiators specified by Consultant Engineer – Services Design Solution (SDS). SDS was responsible for specifying the Concord radiators in partnership with the Main Contractor Midas Construction and locally based heating and plumbing contractors Murch and Baker have installed 67 radiators from Stelrad’s popular Concord range in the offices and public areas of the building, in what is the first of three phases of the Oceansgate development.
Endeavour House is the aptly described anchor office building for the development. The stonework of the building complements the stone dockyard wall, in keeping with the history of the site. The building also features one of the original capstans outside the front entrance and a ‘steel wave’, placed over the rear entrance of the building designed by a local firm of architects.
Plymouth City Council worked closely with Phase 1 architects Form Design, The Devonport Naval Heritage Centre and the National Museum of the Royal Navy, to source historic photographs of what the Oceansgate development site looked like before it was heavily bombed during WWII. Three images have been enlarged and displayed as artwork in Endeavour House, with one on each floor.
The site had to undergo an Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) survey, which is an essential preliminary for all of the Oceansgate development due to Devonport Dockyard being so heavily bombed during WWII. Luckily no bombs or ordinates were detected!
Oceansgate is transforming disused Ministry of Defence land in South Yard into the UK’s first marine enterprise zone, and it has been designed with the needs of marine businesses in mind.
Councillor Bowyer from Plymouth City Council said:
“Oceansgate is an absolute fantastic development for Plymouth.
“As Britain’s Ocean City, we’re committed to ensuring growth and development in the sector and maximising the potential of our wonderful city.”
The Oceansgate buildings have been designed to reflect the historic nature of South Yard and natural materials such as stone feature heavily. The architects wanted to emphasise the connection with the sea and have implemented a ‘kinetic wall’ on the façade of Endeavour House, which by reflecting light, appears to ripple in the wind as though it’s water.
Once all three phases of the development are complete, it will offer 25,000m² of flexible employment space and three docks suitable for marine industry dockside operations.
“We’re delighted to have been selected to feature in this exciting new development,” says Stelrad’s Head of Marketing Chris Harvey. “The use of our Concord radiators highlights the increasing popularity of our decorative and designer radiator options for commercial projects like this one. Many architects and building designers are seeing the selection of radiators as an important part of the design rather than simply as the provision of functional heating appliances. They look perfect in this setting and we’ve been told that businesses contemplating moving into these new offices have been hugely impressed by the choice of radiators as part of the overall design of the building.”
SDS Associate Mechanical Engineer, Tom Lawson says: “Plymouth City Council wants Oceansgate to be an exemplar scheme. Stelrad Concord radiators were chosen for their visual appeal and were individually sized to design temperature of 70/40 degrees Celsius enabling future adaptability to a district heating network.”
Paul Murch is a director of Murch and Baker, the heating contractors for Endeavour House: “We work with Stelrad radiators almost every day of our lives and we find them easy to install, reliable and importantly to us, easily available. The Concords were the obvious choice for this project and we were delighted to be able to install them – the overall ambience of the building is reflected in the design of the radiators – quite simply they fit to a tee with the design structure envisaged by the consultant engineer and architects here.”
