New Victory Hall Design Information
The building will be one of the most environmentally-friendly village halls built anywhere, constructed largely from straw and timber-frame. It will use (as much as is practical) local materials with low embodied energy and will incorporate a number of eco-friendly features, such as green roofs, solar heating, rainwater recovery etc. The straw will come from the surrounding fields.
Straw provides a very high level of insulation so heating demand is expected to be relatively low for a building of this size. The Southerly orientation allows for solar gain to heat the building naturally. The building will also incorporate design features that eliminate the need for summer cooling. In winter, a ground-source heat pump system will warm the building as a study conducted on behalf of the Trustees has shown that this is the best option for an eco-friendly, low maintenance heating system.
Ideas for carbon free power provision and rainwater recycling are still being evaluated but natural lighting will be used as much as possible to reduce electricity demand. All lights will be low-energy.
These features mean that the water, heating and lighting costs for the building will be as low as practically possible. Furthermore, careful attention is being paid to the detailed design in order to ensure that future maintenance and operating costs are kept under control.
The building has been future-proofed to a high degree by considering what the longer term needs of the community might be and adopting a ‘modular’ building design which makes future extensions relatively easy and cost-effective to incorporate.
The building and plot will have the following areas:
Future expansion options were included in the architect’s brief to ensure that what is built now doesn’t constrain future opportunities. The hall design is therefore exceptionally flexible and can easily be adapted to changing community needs in the future (see below). Although we are not planning to do so at this point in time, the site layout makes allowance for additional facilities such as changing rooms, extra meeting rooms, potential community shop or youth club area, community cafe etc.
The community and the user-groups were widely consulted as part of the design process so the building design meets almost all their requirements (within the budget constraints) and all user –groups have expressed their satisfaction with the design. The building will comply fully with Building Regulations, Disability Discrimination Act and BS 8300. Ramped access will be provided where necessary. Disabled toilets and an induction hearing loop system will be installed, along with clear signage.
Future Expansion Options are shown in the following drawing:
