Willesden Green Cultural Centre, London

The Willesden Green Cultural Centre, completed to BREEAM excellent standards, combines leisure spaces with local service delivery, providing a mix of facilities including a library, museum, study space, galleries, archive and cafe. The four-storey new build is extended from the existing 1894 library, which has been refurbished with a ground floor reception forming the physical link between the old and new buildings.

LJJ has created a new energy centre for the project, which will also serve the adjacent development of 95 apartments. Located below ground level, the energy centre presented substantial installation challenges for LJJ, which involved lowering into position the scheme’s 5½ tonne CHP unit. Alongside the CHP, the energy centre also includes switch gear for power, lighting, fire and security systems and two gas-fired boilers.

The new cultural centre features a wide variety of energy efficiency measures developed by LJJ. The new building is naturally ventilated with automated window opening linked to more than 30 sensors monitoring temperature, wind, rain and CO2, and additional cooling capabilities are provided by air handling units if required. LJJ has also designed and installed specialist services for the building, including humidifiers for the archives controlled by humidity sensors.

The DALI lighting control system also provides excellent energy efficiency with automated dimmable control based on absence detection and daylight sensors.