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British Sky Broadcasting Plc
January 2011
The most sustainable broadcasting, studio and data-centre building of its type. Datel Interiors based in Dunfermline were appointed to supply and install 600 specially modified Linnea Bench Workstations for the new Sky Studios Building at BSkyB's headquarters in Osterley. The project was managed by Datel Interiors Director, Mr Steve Lindsay. Elite have worked in partnership with Datel on several large projects for BSkyB over the past 12 months and Sky Studio's further cements our strong working relationship to deliver world class product and service to blue chip clients like BSkyB.
Sky Studios houses recording, post production and transmission facilities for Sky's broadcast and sports news departments, including eight state-of-the-art, naturally-ventilated studios, naturally-ventilated offices and free-cooled data rooms. The architecture of the building dramatically expresses the integrated and world-leading sustainable technology. The giant natural ventilation chimneys of the recording studios are revealed on the exterior of Sky Studios, which some have likened to a new power station architecture for the 21st century.
Whole-life Sustainability.
BSkyB Sky Studios headquarters, Middlesex, UK.
BSkyB's brief for a world-leading, genuinely sustainable HQ has challenged Arup Associates to capture every viable natural resource on the site and to radically minimise energy use throughout.
Arup Associates' interest in whole-life sustainability focuses on the human experience of a building. This philosophy has led directly to creating a highly effective and flexible layout at Sky Studios that is in keeping with the working culture at BSkyB.
Founded in 1990, the company's turnover has grown from £93m in 1991 to £5.4bn last year. It now employs 16,500 full-time staff up and down the country, and broadcasts 26 Sky channels.
And the £130m Sky Studios is the answer: a vast glazed steel box, interrupted by towering columns that prove to be chimneys removing hot and stale air from studios and editing suites. Clearly, Sky Studios is not meant to be a contemporary version of the BBC's elegant Broadcasting House. No: with its factory-like bulk, its sleek cladding and forest of chimneys, it's a refined brute of a building. As for its green credentials, it boasts the world's first naturally ventilated recording studios and, despite its scale, daylight and fresh air reach virtually every workspace.
Specially modified Linnea bench workstations.
Sky Studios has a calculated CO2 emissions rate of 26.3 Kg CO2/m2 per annum - the lowest achieved for a broadcasting centre in Europe, says BSkyB.
Put into context, this is enough annual energy to power 2,000 homes and heat 600 homes, while avoiding losses suffered if the energy had been transmitted over the National Grid.
BSkyB also hopes to offer renewably-generated energy to neighbours on adjacent sites and local homes in future. A 45,000-litre tank collects rainwater from the roof and surroundings, providing 100% of all water needed - including 10% more extras such as tree irrigation. As well as rainwater harvesting, the building captures natural resources such as light and external air for cooling and ventilation. The building achieved a Breeam "excellent" rating and joins an elite group of UK buildings - less than 2% - that have won an 'A'-rated energy performance certificate.