Eden at New Bailey, Salford

Eden at New Bailey

Eden at New Bailey is a 12 story, 15,000 square foot office development in the centre of Salford, on the northwestern side of Manchester, UK. It's built on the site of a former car park and is close to Salford railway station. The New Bailey area - centred on New Bailey Street, has been a key element in the urban regeneration of the city. The locality has been deliberately redeveloped with a mix of commercial, leisure, and residential uses, creating a vibrant city centre.

Other buildings in the development - 2 New Bailey Square, for example - have also prioritised sustainability. They have been designed to minimise their carbon footprint and output, and to increase high levels of long-term energy efficiency. Eden represents the culmination of this process, with maximum gains towards Net Zero combined with a built environment that prioritises humans in healthy workspaces. Eden is notable for its exterior living wall which not only improves air quality but assists in temperature regulation. There's an emphasis on natural light and the use of plants inside as well as out.

Project Requirements

From the start, Eden set out to be the most sustainable and future-proofed office development in Greater Manchester and in the UK. To achieve this goal, high expectations became the norm.

• Best practices: adopted from the Low Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI) - a collaborative network of built environment professionals.

• Net Zero: Overall design and specifications met or exceeded the UK Green Building Council guidance and framework for Net Zero in operation.

• Maximum recyclability is incorporated into every step - such as the curtain walling, windows, and doors supplied by TECHNAL UK which can be reclaimed at the end of the building's lifecycle.

• BREEAM: Construction and operation set out to achieve "Outstanding" certification for BREEAM. This is a key methodology setting the worldwi

  de standards for assessing systems of building and works for their environmental responsibility.

• Energy efficiency and indoor environment quality: Targeted at achieving NABERS UK 6 (the maximum possible score). NABERS UK is the British version of the widely accepted National Australian Built Environment Rating. Eden achieved 5.5 - the highest score so far for a commercial building in the UK. No one has yet recorded a score of 6.

The entire project was conceived not simply as an exercise in sustainability. It has been a purposeful process which brings to life the opportunities to improve the quality of life for real people using the building, while giving equal priority to Net Zero. It's been built from first principles to make a positive difference at every stage of construction and throughout the life of the building.

As a leader in aluminium building systems, TECHNAL UK supplied products and components that are essential to the structure and functionality of Eden at New Bailey. This is an office building in the heart of Salford that's playing an important part in a substantial urban renewal project. Eden at New Bailey is a flagship for sustainability and the circular economy.

As well as doors and windows, TECHNAL's involvement includes curtain walling. This was particularly important because of the striking exterior feature of the building - an immense green "living wall". This contains around 350,000 plants, making it the largest example of a green wall in Europe, and a fundamental part of the property's biophilic design.

An equally important reason for their involvement is TECHNAL's robust sustainability credentials. As part of this approach, all aluminium supplied was Hydro CIRCAL® 75R, which is made with at least 75% recycled post-consumer aluminium and is 100% recycled at the end of its lifecycle.

Project Partners: Shared Ambitions, Shared Goals

The Client: ECF

ECF - previously English Cities Fund - is a partnership between Homes England, muse, and Legal & General.

Homes England is the government's housing and regeneration agency. They often work with local authorities, institutional landlords, and property developers to increase and improve housing stock and improve the commercial and urban environment.

muse are property developers specialising in regeneration. They describe themselves as placemakers. They have considerable experience working with carefully chosen partners to deliver sustainable mixed-use projects which are good to use - real thought goes into ensuring they add value to the quality of life for the people using their properties.

Legal & General is a UK-based financial services and asset management company with global reach. They are best known as a pension and life insurance provider, also holding extensive property portfolios, including in the UK.

Architects: make

make is an international firm of architects with a particular interest in carbon neutral projects. They believe strongly in the idea that sustainability can be achieved without a 'hair shirt' mentality, and that modern buildings can be energy efficient, healthy, and enjoyable spaces. They have a dedicated working group, Make Neutral, which focuses on cross-sector developments and best practice in sustainability.

In the Eden at New Bailey project, they saw an opportunity to create a life affirming environment where the living wall exterior (also visible from inside the building) contributes to air quality and thermal regulation, as well as providing real connection with the natural world. Working with many specialists, make have helped create a human-friendly development that will be a benchmark of sustainability for many years to come.

Curtain Walling, Windows, and Doors: TECHNAL

TECHNAL have a strong and growing reputation for their work with aluminium, recycling, and sustainability. A combination of their committed environmental approach, the high quality of their products, and competitive pricing made TECHNAL a natural choice when it came to selecting aluminium for curtain walling, windows, and doors.

Not only were the selected products the right ones for the job, but they also came with the added benefit of being part of TECHNAL's circular manufacturing model. All the aluminium profiles supplied by TECHNAL was made with Hydro CIRCAL 75R, which contains at least 75% recycled post-consumer aluminium. And all of it can be recycled again at the end of the building's life through the aluminium value chain with TECHNAL and Hydro, before being returned to the market in new high-quality products.

Fabricators: Quest Solutions

Aluminium fabricators for this development were Bradford-based Quest Solutions, one of TECHNAL's established partners from collaboration on other projects. Quest Solutions are glazing and facade specialists, with extensive knowledge of TECHNAL products and a shared understanding of the drive towards sustainability in construction. They worked closely with both TECHNAL and make architects to design the aluminium products used, and to ensure the additional challenges of the living wall were met with effective and reliable solutions.

Contractors: Bowmer + Kirkland

With headquarters in Derbyshire, Bowmer + Kirkland (B+K) operate throughout the UK and have had extensive involvement in the Greater Manchester area, including six properties in the New Bailey regeneration scheme, one of which is Eden at New Bailey.

Not only did their experience in the area - they also built MediaCity in Salford - qualify them for involvement, but B+K have put considerable resources into developing full sustainability in the construction industry. They have committed to Net Zero carbon by 2040. As part of that journey, they are working toward 50% Net Zero by 2030.

Eden at New Bailey: Prioritising Sustainability and Healthy Workspaces

Eden at New Bailey is rightly well known for its living wall. It's an impressive and life-affirming structure. Less obvious but equally important are the multiple initiatives incorporated into the development which create an energy efficient workspace and healthy interior environment.

Examples include rainwater recovery for use in irrigating the wall, reducing the weight of lift cars to reduce operational energy needs, maximising natural light and using efficient and glare-free LED lighting. Other features, like the use of Low Volatile Organic Compounds & low embodied energy materials have helped improve the physical environment and long-term health benefits of working at Eden.

This chimes with TECHNAL's own approach where the drive is to deliver two underlying benefits in every project. First is the reduction of carbon emissions during both production and construction phases. Second, is supplying products and materials with high-performance and circularity which contribute to reducing the carbon emissions once the building is in use.

It's an approach that needs constant adjustment as technologies improve and, just as with Eden at New Bailey, there's satisfaction in meeting the challenges head on and driving forward to low-carbon future.