Effective Ventilation Supplied at Hobhouse Court

Project Overview

Hobhouse Court is a Grade II listed, mixed-use building just off Trafalgar Square in London. The building earned its name from Sir John Cam Hobhouse, who served as a Member of Parliament for various constituencies between 1820-1851 before being appointed to the House of Lords.

The building combines historical interest with premium location. Following the property’s regeneration, the product of a design collaboration between Brisac Gonzalez and Arquitectonica, the new site now offers 20 modern, state-of-the-art apartments, one medium-sized office space and one large retail space. In addition to this, the building also welcomes back the Royal Watercolour Society to its original home, presenting the opportunity for guests to visit the historical vaults located in the building’s basements

Challenge

During the vault restoration, excavators worked in the enclosed underground vaults; without adequate ventilation, workers could have been exposed to dangerous exhaust fumes and dust.

Solution

RVT used three techniques in combination to ensure that good air quality was maintained for the workers on site.

Dust extraction and filtration:

Dust was tackled by the installation of two, powerful centrifugal fans situated at the end of a passageway. The fans extracted foul air and dust, carrying it along 300mm ducting and passing through EU7 grade filters, located 24 metres away from the vaults.

Forced ventilation:

To maintain good air quality within the vault, a powerful axial fan was located outside the vault at the other end of the building to the fan extracting the dust. Fresh air was forced in via 30 metres of 450mm ducting to provide a continuous flow of fresh air. In order to ensure that the fresh air being brought into the vaults was suitably distributed within specific areas of work, a series of smaller axial fans were positioned in passageways, directing airflow and preventing pockets of poor quality air arising.

Exhaust fume filtration:

Fumes produced by excavators in the enclosed spaces were managed by the introduction of adaptable add-on filters that could be clipped on to the excavators’ exhaust outlets.

"The equipment worked well and resolved the issues at hand. We couldn’t fault the service, either. The delivery was bang on time, the driver very helpfully unloaded and explained the equipment and then helped to set everything up. There was one breakdown during the course of the hire, which we contacted RVT about at 4:30pm one evening; they had an engineer on site next morning at 8am to exchange the kit - happy!” - Contractor’s Site Manager