The Arup Campus
From left to right: Figure 1, Figure 2
The Project
The Arup Campus in Solihull, England was designed by Arup Associates for their midland division. The project was built in 2001, Arup Associates combined efforts with engineers, Ove Arup and Partners to create the building. It was built to accommodate seven hundred employees, all working in various design fields and visual comfort played a crucial role in the building’s design (9). Today it provides office space for over eight hundred employees (19).
Arup was founded in 1946 by Sir Ove Arup. Sir Ove Arup was an engineer that worked on the Sydney Opera House. Today the firm has almost 16,000 employees worldwide. The firm mainly focuses on projects under the umbrella of sustainable architecture. The goal of the Arup Campus was to create an office building with little need for artificial lighting, heating and ventilation (19).
Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5
The Location
The Arup Campus is in Solihull, England, near Birmingham. It is located in an industrial park and to the northwest of the building there is an area of trees, as seen below. These trees are not close or tall enough to the building to create an issue when it comes to daylight entering it. The climate here is a temperate maritime climate. The climate is similar to that in Hilversum, the winters are mild, and the summers are cool. The cloud coverage in Solihull is high. Throughout the year it tends to stay above 60%. Cloud coverage is at its highest during December, January and February (11). The daylight hours during the winter equinox last approximately eight hours and the daylight hours during summer last almost seventeen hours (12).
Figure 6, Figure 7
The Daylight Design
The recommended light levels for a regular office is 500 lux however, for an office where detailed and mechanical drawing is taking place, as is the case of the Arup Campus, a higher level of illuminance is desirable. Direct sunlight generally provides a light level of 100,000 lux while diffuse skylight can be anywhere between 3000 - 18,000 lux. This means that daylight can provide sufficient lighting for tasks within this office without the need for additional artificial lighting. During overcast days where the daylight levels can fall below 3000 lux the allowance of as much daylight into the building is crucial if daylight is to be the primary light source (20).
The building lies on a northwest to southeast axis. This orientation means that the building gets a large amount of daylight during the morning and early afternoon. In the evening however, the building must rely mainly on skylight rather than sunlight. During summer, this orientation allows for sunlight to penetrate the building for a large portion of the day. The sun can curl around the back of the building and allow sunlight into the building through the glazing on the northwest façade during the summer month and allow sunlight into the building during the later portion of the day (12).
The Arup Campus is made up of two pavilions connected by a central building. Both pavilions have two floors. Mezzanines and floor openings were placed into the design in order to allow daylight to reach the lower floor of each pavilion. Along the roof there are capsules which jut out. The building was given the nickname “chicken shed” because of the shape of these capsules. The capsules contain skylights which allow daylight to penetrate the central spaces of the office. The ceilings are high however the floor plan is still relatively deep. The daylight coming in from the capsules above and from clerestory windows prevent this building from having dull, unilluminated areas in its centre. These design features mean that artificial lighting is generally not required during the daylight hours (9), (21).
The Arup Campus is designed to allow its users to control their lighting conditions and to reduce any glare they may experience therefore providing visual comfort. Timber Louvres on the northwest facade that are hand-operated in order to allow occupants that work on that side of the building to alter the lighting conditions to their liking. There are also electrically controlled louvres on the southeast facade as employees do not sit near these windows. Glare is also controlled by having minimal glazing on both the northwest and southeast sides, these sides are both significantly shorter in length than the other two sides of the building. The louvres make the building adaptable to the naturally changing outdoor light conditions rather than having pre-existing measures for fabricated fixed lighting conditions. (9), (21)
The designers were considerate when it came to the employees’ thermal comfort levels while working in the office. Maximising daylight was important but with large amounts of daylight come large amounts of solar gain within the building’s materials. The minimal glazing on the shorter sides and louvres on the other two sides help to combat this issue as they still allow light in but reduce the amount of direct sunlight hitting the surfaces of the building’s interior. (9), (21)
There is a physiological need for the eye to adapt and readapt to different distances. This was vital for Arup Associates to consider as architects spend a large amount of time working on a singular drawing and so their eyes are not allowed to reshape for long periods of time. With the provision of views comes a solution to this problem (9). The glazing along the longer walls allow the employees of Arup to have a form of visual rest. The daylit views provided by the glazing in the facades create a satisfying change in visuals for the eye to generate a rest period.
The materials used in this project are glass, steel and timber. The main structure is made of steel (21). The interior walls, ceilings and structural elements are rendered with a matte white paint. The reflective quality of matte paint falls under wide scatter. The light is diffusely reflected around the room, following a general direction, depending on the incident light’s direction (6). This means that after daylight has entered the office it is then reflected around the space, allowing it to reach more areas of the room. The use of white paint also puts across the idea of brightness within the space.
Figure 8, Figure 9
References
Information
6. Kenny P. Photometry of Materials [Unpublished Notes] Arch20020:The Indoor Environment, University College Dublin [cited 4 October 2020]
9. Phillips D. Daylighting. 1st ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2004 p. 15, 90-93.
11. PD: Weather Data [Internet]. Drajmarsh.bitbucket.io. [cited 18 October 2020]. Available from: https://drajmarsh.bitbucket.io/weather-data.html
12. SunCalc sun position- und sun phases calculator [Internet]. Suncalc.org. 2020 [cited 13 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.suncalc.org/#/52.2029,5.1515,3/2020.10.27/10:40/1/3
19. [Internet]. Arup.com. [cited 20 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.arup.com/offices/united-kingdom/solihull
20. Daylight calculations and measurements - Daylight, Energy and Indoor Climate Book [Internet]. Velux.com. 2020 [cited 21 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.velux.com/what-we-do/research-and-knowledge/deic-basic-book/daylight/daylight-calculations-and-measurements
21. Vassigh S, Chandler J. Building Systems Integration for Enhanced Environmental Performance. 1st ed. J. Ross Publishing; 2011.
Images
Figure 1. D.P. Archive Phillips D. Daylighting. 1st ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2004 p. 93.
Figure 2. Arup Campus [Internet]. Flickr. 2020 [cited 27 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrei_capraru/8310653615/
Figure 3. D.P. Archive Phillips D. Daylighting. 1st ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2004 p. 92.
Figure 4. D.P. Archive Phillips D. Daylighting. 1st ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2004 p. 93.
Figure 5. Arup Associates' Campus | AJ Buildings Library [Internet]. Ajbuildingslibrary.co.uk. 2020 [cited 27 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.ajbuildingslibrary.co.uk/projects/display/id/1960
Figure 6. The Arup Campus Blythe Gate [Internet]. The Arup Campus Blythe Gate. 2020 [cited 27 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Arup+Campus+Blythe+Gate,+Blythe+Gate,+Shirley,+Solihull+B90+8AF,+UK/@52.3757693,-1.8003414,379m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x4870b8389fdd071d:0x528b158cccf8181c!8m2!3d52.375766!4d-1.7981527
Figure 7. No racist plot at Solihull firm Arup, manager tells tribunal [Internet]. Business Live. [cited 28 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/no-racist-plot-solihull-firm-3911150
Figure 8. Energy saving won't cost the earth [Internet]. Business Live. 2020 [cited 28 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/energy-saving-wont-cost-earth-3975451
Figure 9. Lawrence D. Arup Campus ventilation pods [Internet]. Flickr. 2020 [cited 28 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/00derek/8354431189/in/photostream/
