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Endeavour House has had a turbulent start to its life. The flagship building in Ipswich's new Portman Village area, it was originally designed to be the headquarters for domestic energy supplier TXU Energy. At the final fixings stage TXU suffered financial difficulties so construction on the project stopped for around six months until a new owner could be found.

Suffolk County Council stepped forward – at the time it was seeking new premises where it could consolidate its staff. At the end of October its 1200 staff will begin to cross Ipswich, in a phased move due to complete in April 2004, from several ageing facilities.

On paper, Endeavour House appears to be a fairly standard office accommodation: the majority of the floors are primarily open plan, air conditioned spaces; on the ground floor, conference and meeting rooms will be housed. But behind this corporate exterior is a low energy building that includes photovoltaic cells and greywater recycling, as well as a high integrity of supply. "It's one of the largest and most prestigious projects taking part in the area at the moment," stresses Richard Plummer, general manager for ABB ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ Services' eastern region.

Despite the break in construction, the building has retained the majority of its originally planned features, with modifications being limited to areas where the two organisations have different needs. For example a planned trading floor will not go ahead, but a council chamber is being added.

The office complex comprises two main buildings – a rectangular six-storey block and a slightly shorter, four-storey block. These are joined by an enclosed glass atrium that runs between the blocks up to the fourth floor, providing an internal circulation area at ground floor level. Inside the atrium, footbridges interconnect the two blocks at all floors and the area is serviced by an underfloor heating and cooling system.

It has a predominantly glass exterior with photovoltaic cells incorporated into the south face, fixed by a standard curtain wall system. A further 600 photovoltaic laminate cells are installed on the rooftop of the larger building, providing a screen for the mechanical plant.

Construction began in June 2001, following the demolition of the 1960s-built Eastern Electricity hq, which previously occupied the site. ABB ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ Services started on site in May 2002, having won the contract for installation of the electrical services. The firm is based only a few minutes walk from the complex, but chose to have an on-site project office. "That was one of our selling points; that we could mobilise very quickly," explains Plummer. "We moved lock, stock and barrel onto site."

Main contractor Bovis Lend Lease also had offices at the site as did the mechanical contractor Haden Young. There were no formal partnering agreements between the teams, but regular co-ordination meetings were held.

ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ for the future
When ABB began work, the steel building frame and concrete slab floors were complete, but the final walls had yet to be added – instead waterproof protection and mesh were in place. Installation of the services began on the top floor, with the teams working downwards through the floors.

The floor areas in both buildings are very similar, simplifying installation. Graham Stannard, electrical site supervisor explains: "Once we'd completed a floor we learnt what the gremlins were. We kept the same teams on, so what lessons we'd learnt stayed learnt." Initially the installation teams concentrated on the six-storey building; when the third floor was reached a second team began work on the four-storey block, with the supervisor from the first building then working across the two.

Both blocks are fed from one ground floor electrical plantroom and a mechanical plantroom on the roof of the taller building.

The creation of an environmentally friendly electricity supply was helped here by the original owners. Standby generation has not been used. Instead the complex is fed by two hv ring main supplies, which feed into four 1500 kVA transformers. The complex only needs supply from two transformers to operate. "The idea is that because they have two supplies, if they lost one ring they can still run," explains Plummer. "The security of supply is because of who the initial client was. What they were trying to do was provide it without standby generation because that's not environmentally friendly, so they used double security on their intake. If one leg of the ring goes down they can feed it from the other leg, and if one ring goes down they can feed it from the other ring." Further integrity is provided at the main distribution panel: each half of the panel is fed by two transformers, but if one stops working or has to be switched off, a bus coupler enables the supply from the other circuit to be used.

Supply to the office areas is via a rising main through the central core of each block. Rising busbars with tap-off units feed three distribution boards at each level, the supply radiating from here out onto the floors. One of the busbar risers in each block is backed by a 100 kVA ups, ensuring a continual supply.

The open plan floor areas have been flood wired for small power distribution, with power track installed the length of the floors, spaced at 2 m widths. This is contained under a false floor and feeds floor outlets positioned at desk positions set by the client.

The void created by false ceilings contains all the power track and control systems for the light fittings and fire alarm system. Daylight sensors are included on the lighting to minimise energy use.

The open plan office areas are served by a variable refrigerant flow (vrf) supply and extract air conditioning system, which, at the time of installation by mechanical contractor Haden Young was the largest of its kind in Europe. Internal heat source units supply refrigerant to remote fan coil units on floors that can either heat or cool the immediate surrounding area as necessary.

The size of the ceiling void needed to contain the m&e services is such that detectors for the laser-operated fire alarm system have been installed inside the void as well as in the circulation areas to give early detection and warning in the event of a fire. A laser detection system was selected over an ionisation version due to its higher sensitivity.

One of the main issues on the project was the unscheduled break in the construction process. It was originally due for completion in January 2003 and handover in March, but construction was put on hold in November 2002. ABB recommenced work on site in April 2003 and completion is due in late October.

"One of the things we ensured was that when we did return to site we returned with exactly the same people all the way through," explains Plummer. "We made sure that we reallocated all the same people back to the site to pick up where they left off, because that made sense for continuity. Within reason Bovis has done the same," he adds.

The break also affected deliveries to a certain extent. These had been planned on a just-in-time basis and a framework agreement between ABB and local wholesaler Newey & Eyre meant deliveries could be made on a daily basis "direct to the coalface". When the job was halted in November, "things had been paid for and they kept coming in," explains Stannard. This meant temporary storage had to be found on the lower, incomplete floors. As the project was so close to completion though this seems to have caused minimal problems. Indeed the non-construction related issues here appear to have been ably overcome, giving the council a low running cost headquarters suited to the 21st century.