Sustainable Building Design

Chapter 6Environmental Services

Michael Beaven¹, Miles Keeping², David Pearce¹ and David Shiers³

¹Arup Associates, London, W1T 4BQ, UK

²Hillbreak Ltd., Buckinghamshire, HP18 9TH, UK

³School of the Built Environment,, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK

Environmental or Building Services systems and equipment must deliver comfort and amenity to the users of property through carefully designed heating, cooling, ventilation, good air quality, lighting, power, telecoms, IT, security systems, water supply and drainage.

Building services are an important part of building design and can account for 30% of the capital cost and 50% of the running costs of a typical UK office building (BSRIA, 2012). Moreover, building services should never be seen simply as mechanical and electrical kit which can be ‘bolted-on’ to a building, but must ever be seen as integral to a successful, economic design strategy, to be carefully considered at the outset of the design process.

The Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA) has published an excellent series of guides which explain the principles of mechanical and electrical building engineering and can be referred to when reading this chapter.

1. https://www.bsria.co.uk/about/
2. https://bsria.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/bsria-blue-book-20151.pdf
3. https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Rules_of_Thumb_-_Guidelines_for_building_services

The design of Building Services and choice of appropriate systems is determined by ...