As a 2014 BCIA award winner, ORTUS is in good company. The world-renowned London Aquatics Centre by Zaha Hadid Architects, a Stirling Prize contender, was named the BCIA Major Building Project of the Year (more than £50 million), winning against projects by Norman Foster, Rafael Viñoly and Richard Rogers. 

Striking architectural features and sustainable technologies underpin the meticulously-planned ORTUS learning and events centre in Camberwell, south London, which is open to all and houses teaching and conference facilities, a community café and exhibition spaces. The building was conceived as a free-standing pavilion with multi-functional, connected spaces positioned at half-level intervals around a central atrium. The central space, optimised window design and floor level offsets allow abundant daylight while controlling solar gain.

Skelly & Couch ensured that manual and automated natural ventilation, coupled with profiled soffit and exposed fair-faced concrete brickwork, maximises the effects of thermal mass. The primary thermal source is a closed loop ground source installation consisting of seven 120m vertical loops and a simultaneous heat/cool pump unit, partly powered by a roof-mounted PV array. An integrated KNX system controls HVAC and lighting.

ORTUS has a BREEAM sustainability rating of ‘Excellent’ and is EPC ‘A’-rated. In the past year it has won three RIBA awards and was named the Best Education Building by the Brick Development Association. It is also a Civic Trust Award winner.