Gilberts (Blackpool) Limited

A Gilberts Mistrale Natural Ventilation solution has played a key role in Filwood Business Park in Bristol acheiving BREEAM outstanding at design stage.The system was able to balance a fresh intenal environment with minimal ingress of noise from the busy roads around ths site.

The £11 million Business Park won the Eco Green Building of the Year at the Bristol Green Capital awards. Some 1200m2 of offices and 200m2 of workshops for SMe's have been designed by the Stride Treglown with ch2m Hill and constructed by Midas Group for Bristol City Council.

All the buildings use Mistrale to provide single sided ventilation in a cellular arrangement. Louvres with insulated dampers and sound attenuation modulate fresh air drawn in at low level with air exhausted at high level. Ventilation is delivered 24 hrs a day enabling heat built up during the day to be purged at night

James Horner at Stride Treglown says "The pventilation strategy presented various challenges, including addressing potential noise ingress through any open windows from the busy surrounding roads. Gilberts provided a total solution for us"

The long-awaited £49m Arts & Innovation Centre in Bangor, is bridging the gap between engineering and art in part through state-of-the-art British engineering technology. Pontio, (Welsh for bridge), aims to link art, science, the University and the local community, through its provision of theatre, cinema, design & innovation centre in one building located between the main University buildings and the city.

And it has used state-of-the-art techniques to achieve high environmental standards

- it used 30% less carbon than buildings of similar size in its construction, and will continue to be eco-friendly in operation, producing its own electricity and using natural ventilation solutions from the UKs leading independent air movement specialist, Gilberts (Blackpool) Ltd, to reduce reliance on heating and air conditioning.

More than 60 of Gilberts innovative Mistrale ventilation louvres have been integrated into key areas of the foyer, theatre technical workshop, social learning area and energy centre. Mistrale 75 ventilators are unique in their performance: they achieve accurate and stable airflow with air leakage as low as 5m3/hour/m2- twice as good as current Regulatory requirements, with a U value, when closed, of as little as 0.93W/m2K- equivalent to a double-glazed window.

All the units at Pontio feature Gilberts WPZ50 rain and weather resistant external louvres, to enable the systems to be easily integrated into the fully-glazed atrium facade. Cross ventilation and passive stack principles have been employed to ensure appropriate air changes to maintain the internal air quality and temperature. Night cooling- a key benefit of natural ventilation strategies- is optimised to further enhance the building's energy efficiency and ensure a comfortable environment within when occupied.

Dewi Hughes, Pontios executive director observed, "The essence of Pontio is that is is an interdisciplinary space, in its end-use and its creation, bridging art and engineering into one landmark building. Even the detail of the ventilation reflects that ethos, where engineering has devised an unobtrusive solution that blends seamlessly into the architecture."

All Gilberts systems are engineered to order, and comprehensively tested, in the UK. Founded 50 years ago, privately owned Gilberts is unique in having its own, on-site (85,000ft2) manufacturing facility, producing engineered solutions, with an in-house test centre. Technical expertise is supported by bespoke software developed in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, addressing air movement and flow simulation/ computation fluid dynamics.