Case study 12: University of La Rochelle, La Rochelle, France.

The building of the science department of the University of La Rochelle serves to education and research. It is equipped with two large lecture halls and many lecture rooms, computer rooms, laboratories and offices. The structure is flexible allowing the change of the internal partitioning. The outside finishing is in glass but the walls are normal. The building has two orientations: east-west and north-south. The east and west facades are equipped with shading devices The south facade is shaded by an adjacent building that hosts the large rooms for laboratory tests. The south facing offices are cooled with a heat pump chiller.

Features & Systems

• Fan-coils, Boilers, Heat Pumps
• Mechanically controlled ventilation
• Shading (no specific design)
• Building Energy management system (BEMS) ( Satchwell )

Using Matrix Tool to assess building Intelligence

The impact of people shows high responsiveness of occupants -- less than 10% do not know how to operate the local devices and complain about the indoor comfort. The building is designed to satisfy the essential needs of disabled people.

Panel two (systems) shows that the building is located in a green area, the BMS are suited to the needs, a heat pump is used, but the energy tariff does not influence the operation of the building.

The critical issues analysis reveals that no occupant has developed the SBS syndrome and that the building has a low environmental impact (<20kg/m2/year of CO2). The energy consumption is paid for floor area, thus do not encouraging savings from the departments.

The processes show that the operators have a large autonomy in taking decisions and work with a specialised company for maintenance.

The design reveals that the facility management is easy to change, but less attention was given to other aspects.

Overall score: 73.5

The score of 73.5 rates the building in the good category.