SES

The Natural History Museum selected SES to execute the diverse mechanical and electrical contract on the new £17m ‘Darwin Centre-Phase One' in London.

The new building comprises not only general offices and laboratories, but also provides cold storage for the museum's soft bodied specimens, enabling visitors to see the range of the collections, and the scientific research they support. The specimens are housed in the spirit store and contained in jars of Methylated Spirit (IMS) at a constant 130C to keep them in an excellent preserved condition. SES installed and commissioned the Building Management System to handle the Centres demands.

SES saved 75% on-site installation time on the roof top pipework system by prefabricating the modules off-site and then delivering them on a ‘just in time’ basis. SES also installed the power supplies and controls for the state-of-the-art solar wall. The louvres in the all-glass wall use electric sensors to track the movement of the sun, giving the building an ‘intelligent-skin’, which changes according to the weather conditions and the time of day.

Also unique to the project are the externally mounted supply and extract ducts for the spirit store. One of the advantages of this is to create more interior space and minimise disruption to the collection and the on-site scientific research.