The refurbishment of the Grade II Listed Jackson Building at Trinity College is delivering an innovative low energy retrofit to a complex building at the heart of the College.

‍

‍Trinity College Oxford embarked on a major initiative to decarbonise the College’s Grade II listed Jackson Building which houses common rooms, teaching rooms and student bedrooms. The existing gas boilers and electric panel heaters have been replaced with an innovative deep-bore ground source heat pump system and the heating and insulation systems have been upgraded to improve energy efficiency. This will reduce Trinity’s CO2 emissions by around 115 tonnes per year and bring down the carbon footprint of the College by 12%.

‍

‍The etch team were appointed to deliver MEP and building physics services on this complex and logistically challenging scheme and are honoured that the College trusted our team to deliver this exceptionally ambitious project.

‍

‍A successful Listed Building Consent application was prepared in conjunction with our design collaborators at Original Field of Architecture for this project that was awarded a grant from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) to support the energy efficiency measures including fabric upgrades and provision of ground source heat pumps.

‍

‍Given the sensitive nature of the buildings, all works have been completed in a sympathetic fashion, keeping with the setting and the character of the building.

‍

Working amongst the historic buildings and delicate gardens of the College grounds, the team installed 22 boreholes to depth of 166m each. When complete, the scheme will fully remove fossil fuel usage from the Grade II listed heritage building. The project perfectly articulates the complex interaction between ambitious decarbonisation aims and a deep respect for the historic fabric in heritage environments.