Sustainable businesses: 80 Charlotte Street

Working closely with Derwent London and Make, Arup engineered 80 Charlotte Street with lean materials use and flexibility, reducing lifecycle emissions. 

The building uses air source heating and cooling pumps, avoiding need for fossil fuels, and supporting advancement towards carbon net zero. It has one of the largest heat pumps in central London, recovering and reusing heat via polyvalent units.

The reception and atria are naturally ventilated, pulling in outside air, and a highly integrated fresh air strategy uses the atrium to distribute fresh air to floors. Electricity, on both landlord and tenant sides, is to be purchased from ring-fenced renewable sources, and 80m2 of solar thermal panels will pre-heat domestic water.

Arup carried out an early embodied carbon study to identify opportunities to cut emissions. The building was almost entirely fabricated off-site, with parts brought to site and connected together, from pre-cast concrete facades to structural elements such as pipework risers and soffits, reducing labour, saving construction time, and enhancing safety rate. 

The building achieved BREEAM excellent rating. 

The development includes affordable housing, a new public pocket park, and is the first large-scale all electric building in London. It is operationally carbon neutral.

The design retained part of the existing 1960s building, blending old with new. 

Image provided by Derwent London