Retrofitting a historic building into an enhanced, zero-carbon gym for Darwin College.

With sustainability high on the client’s agenda, we realised the potential of the existing facility at Darwin College through retrofit. The new gym marks the client’s first significant effort into renewables, taking a proactive approach to reducing energy consumption across the college buildings.  

Through a rounded and contextualised view of all the elements of the building, we demonstrated our expansive experience in upgrading buildings as well as knowledge of renewables to ensure that the most appropriate outcome, sensitive to the conservation area, was achieved.  

The retrofitted building provides energy efficiency savings, using photovoltaic panels to become partly self-sufficient in energy usage. 

The project team and client alike demonstrated enthusiasm across all aspects of the project, with a shared willingness to play their part in minimising carbon and boosting energy efficiency for historic colleges.