National Wildlife Conservation Park

Initially, Quattro was appointed by Bristol Zoo to deliver architectural design services for their Conservation Education Centre. It is now acknowledged as one of the greenest buildings in the city of Bristol.

Our next challenge at the zoo was for Quattro’s Education Architects to design an elevation to the historic Clifton residential street on one side  of the Education centre and to the Bristol zoo gardens on the other. Additionally, another challenge was to ensure the outcome was a delightful design yet inexpensive, with sustainability at its core.

Quattro successfully achieved the client’s brief providing a 2 storey Education Centre providing classrooms, animal rooms, administration and research areas – all to a low budget.

The highly insulated building was sustainably designed with high density thermal mass, exposed to achieve thermal efficiency. As a leading Sustainable Architectural Consultancy promoting Sustainable Design since our inception in 1984, further innovative solutions (which are still relatively new), included an ingenious system of natural ventilation making use of the thermally stable rock bed under the building. This was achieved through a low energy ventilation tube, which runs through the ground beneath the site providing free pre-heated air. This fresh air is drawn over the rock for a warming benefit in the winter and also has a cooling benefit in the summer.

The carbon footprint of the project was also reduced by reusing materials from a previous building on the site, which were recycled for use in the construction of the new Education Centre.