The Power of Working in Collaboration Recognised as Breathing Buildings Wins at HVR Awards

Breathing Buildings, a leading provider of controlled hybrid ventilation systems, is celebrating winning the Collaboration of the Year category at the prestigious HVR Awards.

The company scooped the award for its collaboration with the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) charity and the project team to improve indoor air quality (IAQ) and the working environment at the EAAA’s new headquarters, Helimed House. Breathing Buildings received the accolade at a glittering awards ceremony held at The Chelsea Harbour Hotel, London on the 29th September.

The HVR Awards recognises and rewards companies across the heating and ventilating industry that demonstrate excellence in their field and true innovation in the way that they operate or in what they produce. The Awards has developed a process that ensures only the very best take home an accolade and is established as a highly respected platform for recognition.

The standard of entries this year was exceptionally high and after a rigorous judging process Breathing Buildings won the award for its excellent collaboration on the EAAA project.

Louise McHugh, Operations Leader at Breathing Buildings, comments: “Winning the Collaboration of the Year award in the HVR Awards is amazing! We’re delighted that our way of working in collaboration with our clients has been recognised at these prestigious awards. We pride ourselves on working alongside our clients and we’re so pleased with the end result at Helimed House.

“Our draught free ventilation solution for the EAAA provides good indoor air quality and good thermal comfort and ticks all the right boxes for a comfortable work environment for employees.”

Matthew Jones, East Anglian Air Ambulance CEO, comments: “What a result! We’re thrilled that EAAA’s new headquarters has won an HVR Award. This just shows how working with the right company achieved the results we wanted.

“We’re very pleased with the performance of Breathing Buildings’ hybrid ventilation system and the many benefits it has brought to Helimed House.

“We can now offer current and future employees a healthy, comfortable working environment – essential for attracting and retaining excellent people who can help us raise the required £17m every year to continue to deliver this essential emergency medical service and do the very best for every patient and their loved ones.”

With sustainability at its heart, the EAAA HQ project extended and largely rebuilt EAAA’s original facility at Norwich Airport as a base for their operations, including the Helicopter Emergency Medicine Service (HEMS), which was able to be extended to 24-hours per day, ground support, fundraising and training.

Ventilation was an integral part of the project with Breathing Buildings collaborating with the team on the ventilation for the brand-new section of the building, which features Breathing Buildings’ NVHR 1100 natural ventilation with heat recycling units together with S1500L e-stack ventilation units.

Designed by architects Feilden+Mawson, the brief was to create a practical building that was a great place to work while being sustainable and it had to offer payback in terms of running costs. After working on some initial designs, they were joined by Johns Slater and Haward (M&E) and Canham Consulting (Structures and Civils) where they were able to drill into the detail.

Having successfully used Breathing Buildings’ hybrid ventilation over a number of years in new build schools, it was the M&E Consultant Johns Slater and Haward who recommended Breathing Buildings’ hybrid ventilation system as the ideal solution to provide good IAQ and comfortable indoor temperatures using low energy solutions.

This ventilation solution was presented to EAAA who were keen to learn more. To do this they visited the Breathing Buildings factory in Soham along with the FM team, Architect and Project Manager. After seeing the evidence of its performance and the clear benefits to the workplace and the team, EAAA gave the go ahead to proceed.

Breathing Buildings’ NVHR® offers energy efficient hybrid ventilation with almost 50% reduction in energy and so operating costs. NVHR® comprises both natural and mechanical ventilation. Allowing low-energy hybrid natural ventilation, even in buildings with limited facade and roof space, highly efficient mixing fans mitigate cold draughts in winter and provide a ventilation boost in summer.

Fitted with external and internal temperature sensors and an intelligent controller, the system monitors conditions to create an ideal indoor environment, boosting both productivity and wellbeing. NVHR® optimises indoor air quality, comfort and efficiency by automatically switching between natural, hybrid and mechanical ventilation, maximising benefits.

The NVHR® hybrid ventilation system’s ultra-efficient facade-based mixing ventilation allows enhanced natural ventilation in deep plan spaces whilst making the most of internal heat gains to deliver superb thermal comfort and indoor air quality. Hybrid ventilation focuses on the vital balance of indoor air quality, thermal comfort and efficiency.

The NVHR® tackles energy efficiency and environmental issues and provides excellent indoor air quality. This makes NVHR® ideal for a wide range of applications including schools and offices.  

For further information on the HVR Awards visit: www.hvrawards.com. 

For further information on new NVHR®, as well as other products and services offered by Breathing Buildings, visit www.breathingbuildings.com. 

EAAA Picture Credits: © Sarah Toon Photography