EC Harris is working on the UK’s largest solar power project. Manchester’s 400m CIS Tower is to be clad in solar panels in a job costing £5.5m and due to finish in December 2005.

Owned by client the Co-operative Insurance Society, the building is a major city landmark and the UK’s tallest office block outside London. “The client is very much committed to corporate social responsibility and it committed to this project to develop renewable energy in a building-integrated way,” said EC Harris partner Andrew Simpson.

Project manager EC Harris was involved with the building at the inception of the project in November 2004, when it carried out an options appraisal. Prior to that it retained a contract to keep the building repaired.

The tower, built in 1962, is clad in millions of mosaic tiles, which have since begun to decay. EC Harris ruled out repairing the mosaic as this had been unsuccessful in the past. A traditional rainscreen cladding was thought to be the “best technical solution” but was deemed costly and to have a high ecological impact.

The firm came up with photovoltaic panels to help reduce the project’s environmental footprint and promote solar panels.

The main contractor is ISG InteriorExterior and the lead designer is Arup.

The client is understood to have received grants of £885,000 from the Northwest Regional Development Agency and £175,000 from the DTI for the project.

Source

QS News