The £6.4m Paignton Library is notable for its chimney stacks which refer to the former use of the site as a railway goods yard, whose numerous brick warehouses had distinctive industrial roof forms. At the library, the chimney stacks provide full natural ventilation and north light, as well as a south-facing inclined surface to suit solar water heating. The project achieved the Very Good BREEAM rating required by the client, Torbay Council.
Ventilation of the building uses the stack effect in conjunction with the exposed thermal mass of the concrete ceiling soffits, which moderate the diurnal peaks and troughs experienced in internal temperatures and assists night-time purging of heat that can build during the day.
Air is drawn into the building through acoustically-attenuated damper boxes set into the window modules at the perimeter of the ground and first floors. These modulate the air intake, but are also linked to the chimney stack dampers which have overall control of the window intakes via the building management system (BMS).
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The system operates on full natural ventilation unless temperatures exceed 28 degrees for more than one per cent of occupied time, at which point the chimney stacks enter forced mode, when externally mounted fans mechanically assist the ventilation process and bypass the chimney outlets. All the dampers and fans are controlled by the BMS which also has a manual override. The temperature limits have been cast on predictive weather trends for the year 2040.
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Credits
Architect: Kensington Taylor; structural engineer: CASE Consulting; m&e: Hoare Lea; project manager, qs: WT Hills; client: Torbay Council; main contractor: BAM; roof cladding: Progressive Systems; intake and damper systems: PriceTWA.
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