Silbury House, the most sustainable office building in Milton Keynes has officially opened its doors.

RO Real Estate hosted a networking morning and building tour on 27th June to mark the opening of the Silbury House, following its extensive refurbishment.

GSS have been leading the designs for their client, RO Real Estate, to create a modern and flexible working environment that meets sustainability credentials.

Designed to meet Fitwel and BREEAM standards, the works to Silbury House have improved the energy efficiency of the building through thermal upgrades and the introduction of renewable energy solutions to assist in meeting carbon reduction targets. A forward-thinking brief from the client and an holistic design response has created an inviting internal and external environment which no doubt will provide significant benefits to occupant health and productivity.

The city of Milton Keynes is working towards being carbon neutral by 2030 and carbon negative by 2050, creating one of the world’s most sustainable city economies and acting as a model for environmentally conscious growth. From the outset of the project, RO Real Estate has aligned its carbon reduction strategy for Silbury House with the city’s targets.

Chris Chapman, Partner at GSS, commented, “We are proud to have worked on this important project with RO Real Estate and Thomas Sinden as Principal Contractor to help the city of Milton Keynes on its net zero journey. We recognise that the construction industry is a major contributor to carbon emissions, and at GSS, we aim to play our part, not only in the buildings we design, but also our own business carbon footprint. Silbury House has been a fantastic project for our studio to be involved in and build upon our Fitwel and net zero portfolio.”

Edward Rowlandson, Group Managing Director, RO said: “We are immensely proud of Silbury House and thank all those that have helped us achieve our goal of providing the most sustainable office building in Milton Keynes. This building reflects our holistic approach to sustainability, incorporating various solutions, including smart machine learning technology, renewable energy generation and a wide variety of wellbeing initiatives. We remain dedicated to environmental excellence and to improving the social and health aspects of this flagship building’s performance.”

In addition to the works at Silbury House, we have recently completed refurbishments at the South Central Institute of Technology for Milton Keynes College Group. The project included transforming the original 1960s building into a sustainable, modern education destination that will attract learners and bring improvements to their Bletchley Campus. Furthermore, decarbonisation works are ongoing at Milton Keynes University Hospital following a successful Salix funding bid.