The chapmanbdsp environmental team wins industry award

The environmental team at chapmanbdsp has won a top industry award for its simulation work on the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Conference Centre.

The Building Simulation Group (BSG) of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), awarded the building services and environmental design and engineering consultancy the prize after it presented its work at an industry conference.

The Shenzhen World Exhibition and Conference Centre will provide 400,000m2 of prime exhibition when completed next year and contains a 1.8km long air-conditioned walkway connecting 19 hall spaces.

Designed by French architectural firms Valode et Pistre and AUBEit (V&P), the walkways are about 50m wide and have two levels - upper for transit the lower for breakout spaces - with multiple entrances and an independent roof open to the elements at the sides.

Together with V&P, chapmanbdsp simulated the impact of wind-driven precipitation, multi-parameter optimisation of the corridor roof design and thermal and visual comfort modelling.

Shenzhen has a warm, humid subtropical climate, featuring warm dry winters and a rainy season April-October. While mean annual wind speeds are only 3-4m/s, typhoon season peaks in summer, when there are many calm days, exacerbating heat stress.

Wind-driven precipitation is an extremely complex phenomena and notoriously difficult to simulate. Raindrops reaching ground-level range in size from 0.1-8mm diameter, with larger, heavier droplets having non-spherical shapes.

‘Rain simulation’ conducted by chapmanbdsp, which was appointed as environmental consultant for the project, used particle-tracing which allowed the behaviour of different droplet sizes to be approximated.

Shikha Bhardwaj, senior environmental consultant at chapmanbdsp, presented the project on behalf of the environmental team at the recent CIBSE Build2Perform conference in London.

Darren Coppins, CIBSE BSG head judge, said: ‘The judges were particularly impressed with the number of different forms of modelling undertaken for this large project which challenged the modellers involved to question methods to achieve the best outcomes. The modellers also used simulation tools to provide graphic representation of the results to overcome language barriers on the project. Of further note was Shikha’s ability to provide a very fast paced presentation that held attention and provided inspiration, covering a significant amount of detail with good quality graphics.’

Chris Cummings, director of sustainability at chapmanbdsp, added: ‘It’s fantastic to receive this recognition for all of the team’s hard work on this project and very well done to Shikha for such a terrific presentation of our ideas.’

With more than 230 staff across five offices, chapmanbdsp has delivered award-winning projects in more than 30 countries in a range of sectors. The company creates environmental design solutions, on large mixed-use developments through to one-off private residences, that make buildings and the environment more sustainable.

The CIBSE BSG group supports the application of advanced building simulation tools for building and system design. It aims to drive best practice the field and is currently examining opportunities for certification.

The prize format this year focused on the use of building simulation in industrial projects in order to encourage high end usage, research and development and innovation in project-applied building simulation techniques.

PHOTO: Shikha Bhardwaj (centre) Herman Calleja (to Shikha's right looking at the photo) with event sponsors and the judges.