University Engineering Facilities, Sheffield

Built at a cost of £81 million, this engineering building for a Sheffield-based university was designed to be the new home of the engineering faculty, providing 5,000 student study spaces, 19 teaching laboratories and six floors of teaching areas. Completed in 2015, it was the university’s largest capital investment and was designed in partnership with leading UK consulting engineers.

From the outset, the development aimed to achieve a high architectural impact whilst considering environmental responsibility. The building was equipped with rainwater harvesting, solar panels and a low carbon exoskeleton support structure. Collectively, these technologies allowed the building to be classified as BREEAM Excellent.

Stormsaver collaborated with the consulting engineers to design a rainwater harvesting system tailored to the university’s sustainability ambitions. The Combi rainwater harvesting system was specified by our expert team, offering a simple yet robust solution that included an internal break tank which acted as a failsafe to ensure continuous water supply to points of use across the building.

Rainwater was collected from the 1,980 m² roof area and stored in a below ground 38,000 litre tank. The system was capable of supplying up to 43 WCs with recycled rainwater. Additionally, Stormsaver installed a monitoring unit that allowed building users to visualise water savings in real time. The system was designed to recycle approximately one million litres of water per year, contributing significantly to mains water reduction.