Loughborough University is looking to build a small energy and IT facility in the heart of its student village in Leicestershire, UK, that will provide district heating services to nearby student housing.
Avison Young, on behalf of the university, has applied for planning permission to construct a new Energy and Data Hub at Elvyn Way, in the center of the University’s Student Village. The proposals have been granted conditionally.
The proposed site is currently a small grassy mound used for car parking. The proposed hub will comprise a single-story building built into the existing slope of the site, and measure approximately 165 sqm (1,765 sq ft) in floor area.
The hub will provide a district heating and hot water scheme for adjacent student accommodation buildings. The majority of the building will be occupied by heat exchangers, pumps, and storage vessels, with a smaller compartmented area housing servers.
The university is planning to demolish the neighboring Whitworth Tower where the existing energy hub is located. The university intends to complete the construction of the new Energy Hub by September 2023 and complete the demolition of the Whitworth Tower by October 2023.
The area around the new hub would be re-landscaped to create an open space meeting place in the heart of the Student Village, while the roof of the building would be publicly accessible as a terrace.
In a design statement, David Morely Architects said the location chosen works partly due to the proximity to the existing Services and IT equipment that it will be replacing and its central location in the village.
“The university have taken the project as an opportunity to enhance the campus with any lost landscape being replaced with an accessible external roofscape for staff and students to meet up at the appropriately described ‘heart’ of the student village,” said the firm.
Whitworth Tower is a student accommodation building, constructed circa 1959. The work is part of the university’s plans to demolish a number of residential buildings across the campus and replace them with newer, more energy-efficient buildings.
Last year Loughborough University deployed its new Lenovo-based Lovelace supercomputer.
