Project details

Cherwell District Council have a strong desire to be leaders in sustainability and innovative community environments. The vision was to create a building of the highest standards for energy efficiency, and also an environment where people genuinely wanted to work.

When setting the brief for this new building, Cherwell District Council decided that they wanted it to achieve net zero carbon, to be the first non-residential Passivhaus Plus building in the UK, with a rigorous standard for energy efficiency, quality and comfort and to meet stringent procurement rules as well as tight financial budgets.

Members of the EPM team were asked by the client to provide Project Management services on this highly prestigious, high profile complex project. Recognising the budgetary challenges, our team members suggested bringing a contractor in early to help minimise cost risk. Our team members procured a contractor through the SCAPE framework at RIBA stage 2 and then implemented a robust value engineering exercise to ensure the project was viable before moving to RIBA stage 3. We worked closely with main contractor Kier Construction, Passivhaus and Architype Architects to build this amazing building.

The Building was successfully completed and there are now 11 companies operating out of the Eco Business Centre, each bringing valuable jobs to the local economy. It also provides an excellent base for the growing number of self-employed residents to work from, retaining a wealth of creativity and expertise in the region.

This plays an important part in delivering Bicester’s garden town principles, giving members of the community access to good local jobs in a healthy environment.

“I feel so proud to have taken this project from an idea to reality and to have worked with such an inspiring client, contractor and professional team”

Emma Page – EPM Project Manager