The British Museum - Southwest Energy Centre
The British Museum - Southwest Energy Centre
We have had a long and successful relationship with the British Museum, working on a wide variety of projects as framework consultants. This has ranged from small, specific projects advising on displaying exhibits to gallery refurbishments and wider-ranging strategic advice.
Our relationship with the British Museum has been ongoing for 30 years. We are committed to understanding them as a client and use this knowledge to contribute strategically on projects that go well beyond the consideration of resolving the technical engineering challenges.
Despite the prominence of the Bloomsbury estate and its collection, the museum faces challenges in its infrastructure. The South-West Energy Centre (SWEC) project has been initiated to address these issues, aiming to enhance energy supply, rationalise service distribution, and provide resilience for the Bloomsbury estate, ultimately supporting the Museum’s broader mission and masterplan.
Acting as engineers, we have been advising on all stages of the project, which will deliver transformational, sustainable change through limited, strategic intervention in discrete areas of the campus.
Designed to achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating, the energy centre will deliver estate-wide carbon reductions of 45%, while building on only 1.8% of the site’s footprint. This “keyhole surgery’ will end the museum’s reliance on gas fossil fuels for heating, instead utilising the latest all electric water and air source heat pump technology. Once operational, it will result in an estimated net saving of 1,700 tonnes of CO2 annually, the equivalent of 3,400 return flights between London and Glasgow.
Client: The British Museum
Architects: Wright & Wright