The transformation of Downing Place United Reformed Church (URC) in Cambridge, designed by Archangel Architects, has been shortlisted for a prestigious architecture award.
The shortlisting recognises the significant achievement of the project reducing carbon by 80%.
The AJ Retrofit Awards, promoted by The Architects’ Journal, recognises and celebrates the design expertise behind the vital renewal and repurposing of existing buildings, setting a precedent for ways to slash the industry’s carbon footprint in the process.
The reimagining of Downing Place URC, completed in 2021, created an open and inclusive church and community centre, welcoming to all.
The church embraced the opportunity of redevelopment to significantly reduce its carbon emissions through upgrading the building fabric, installing energy efficient services (mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, LED lighting, solar PV panels), and switching to renewable energy suppliers. The absolute reduction in CO² by the redevelopment has proved dramatic.
At the outset of the building project two years of historic gas and electric bills were compared with Church of England (CoE) benchmarks, this revealed energy use was 80% more than CoE average for the halls, and more than double the CoE average for the church.
After 12 months in use, actual annual CO² emissions calculated for the building show the following before and after figures:
- Church before = 0.083 tCO²/ m² after = 0.017 tCO²/ m² = 80% reduction in tCO²/ m²
- Halls before = 0.062 tCO²/ m² after = 0.014 tCO²/ m² = 77% reduction in tCO²/ m²
A reduction of 80%.
“As one of its main areas of focus, Downing Place Church has recognised that sustainability is a crucial issue for our time, not only for ourselves but for the whole planet and future generations. As part of our response, the church has established a sustainability group which aims to help develop our theological understanding of sustainability; take appropriate decisions regarding the church’s own life; act co-operatively with others who share the same goals and encourage personal lifestyle commitment,” said the Revd Nigel Uden, former General Assembly Moderator and Minister of the church.
Margaret Reynolds, Architect and member of the building committee, added: “I compiled two years of energy bills in 2019 and we realised what a huge amount of energy we were using.
“We were delighted to find that the building retrofit measures we proposed were so effective in reducing carbon emissions. All the redevelopment work and expense proved very worthwhile.”
Downing Place is a registered Eco Church. A yearly carbon footprint assessment is being evolved, which follows Climate Stewards – Small Organisation 360⁰ Carbon and covers numbers of occupants, energy use in kWh/tCO², transport, air flights, food, expenditure, waste and water. These factors will be updated annually.
“One of the greatest triumphs of this project has been that it has acted as a catalyst for the whole church community to embrace sustainability. We have achieved a lot for a relatively small budget but recognise that there is always more to be done,” added Nigel Walter founder of Archangel Architects.
Winners will be announced on 4 April 2023.