180 Great Portland Street

This stunning refurbishment of a former Edwardian residential mansion block in the heart of London’s West End, transformed cellular office space into five storeys of high class, open plan accommodation.

The development brief was to maximise lettable space, whilst minimising material and construction costs. There were a few specific challenges with this project which made AET Flexible
Space’s underfloor air conditioning (UfAC) system the best option for this project, including restricted headroom and structural and facade limitations.

AET’s CAM-C system, with underfloor supply and floor-level return air, was selected as all of the services are located in the raised access floor, removing the need for any ceiling-based services and so maximising floor to ceiling heights.

Chilled or warmed air is provided by the conditioned air module (CAM). The underfloor void is divided into supply and return air channels, and  supply air is drawn up into the space by Fantile units (FTU450), which are recessed into the floor.

These Fantile units feature individual controls to provide variable speed and temperature adjusted for maximum user comfort. Air travels back to the CAM via return grilles located over the return channel for reconditioning and is mixed with fresh air to achieve high standards of indoor air quality.

AET’s flexible underfloor UfAC solution allowed for a minimum floor plenum of 200mm. This maximised the floor to ceiling height, and post refurbishment enabled a 35% increase in total occupancy.

Sustainability played an important role in the brief, with the specification of the building services having to allow for future flexibility whilst offering potential energy savings. By adopting the underfloor approach, the project team ensured that the offices could provide optimum comfort cooling and maximum versatility for speculative tenants.

180 Great Portland Street won the 2008 BCO Award for Innovation, and was awarded BREEAM “Very Good” status.