Mabbett increase the efficiency and sustainability of our own HQ office premises

In 2008, Mabbett purchased an 1850 Victorian, B listed townhouse as the firm’s office headquarters in Glasgow and embarked on an extensive refurbishment project to modernise and restore the building for future use.

Approach and Delivery

In 2008, Mabbett purchased an 1850 Victorian, B-listed townhouse and embarked on an extensive refurbishment project to modernise and restore the building for future use. The firm’s in-house mechanical and electrical building services engineers along with the firm’s chosen architect, Fiona Sinclair, managed and implemented the entire project to redesign the buildings envelope, heating, lighting and ventilation systems at the design stage to make them more efficient by reducing the amount of energy the building needs in the first instance and therefore, introducing significant future cost savings. Solutions implemented retained many of the inherent features of the existing 1850 Victorian townhouse to fulfil the projects energy conversation goals.

Detailed below are the main energy conservation features that Mabbett implemented in its historical building restoration programme:

• increased the insulation levels of the roof as it was largely uninsulated;
• retained the natural ventilation in the main offices using trickle vents and openable windows;
• replaced the original single glazed sash and case windows with low-e, double glazed units all designed in the 1850 motif;
• installed a new heating system with new mild steel pipework to serve radiators which were better placed under windows to release wall space and also reducing cold draughts and radiant cooling thus, making it more comfortable for the occupant. The heating system was also split into two centrally controlled zones and local control provided to each office via thermostatic radiator valves; and
• rebuilt the entire electrical system and new high frequency fluorescent lights with triphosphor lamps were installed and wired so that the lights nearest the windows could be switched off when daylight is sufficient.