Consarc’s timber frame design will house incubator spaces for start-up companies working on environmental construction

A £7m incubator office building and conference centre in Daventry, Northamptonshire, will top out on site today.

The 4000m2 building, designed by Consarc Architects, will house the Sustainable Construction Innovation Network (iNet) and provide incubator spaces for start-up companies in the field of environmentally focused construction.

The building will also feature a flexible conference space that can be used by the local community for events and performances.

The building has environmental features such as a timber frame construction, largely passive ventilation system, efficient heat recovery systems and use of phase-change materials to limit overheating. The building will achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and will use less than 15 Kg of CO2/m2/yr.

The scheme is a joint effort by the University of Northampton and the BRE. Consarc were appointed after winning an open competition organised by the RIBA in 2008 and have gone on to work directly with the contractor.

The building is being constructed by Winvic and will be handed over to the client in spring 2011.

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