The Earth Centre

The Earth Centre is a large-scale visitor attraction on a 300-acre site in one of the most environmentally devastated areas in the country: the coalfields of South Yorkshire.

Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects masterplanned the scheme and designed the entrance building, the Planet Earth Gallery and the solar canopy.

The scheme benefited from a THERMIE grant from the European Union, the Millennium Commission and the European Regional Development Fund.

Planet Earth Galleries

The galleries are partially ground-sheltered structures with low exposed surface area, incorporating high levels of fabric insulation. They contain a below-floor thermal storage labyrinth throughout the three gallery spaces, as part of a mechanical ventilation system which is able to store heat and 'coolth' to smooth out fluctuations in the plant loadings.

The stone cladding to the Planet Earth Galleries was quarried less than 1 mile from site.

Solar canopy

This 925sqm photovoltaic solar collector, rated at 107kW peak, is anticipated to generate in excess of 72,000 kWh per annum. This is currently the largest PV solar collector in the UK. The structure is manufactured from untreated larch poles from Scottish forests.

'Eat @' restaurant building

The building is clad in untreated green oak rainscreen cladding, and incorporates 12 3m x 1m (36sqm) evacuated-tube roof-mounted solar thermal collectors.

All the buildings use the thermal mass of the concrete superstructures as part of the heating and cooling strategies, and use very low water vacuum drainage WC systems with grey water recycling.

Energy consumption/production

The 1,000sqm solar canopy holds the largest array of PV cells in the UK. The output of the 1000m of collector array is just over 107kW peak yielding a total potential of 72,500 kWh per annum of generated electricity. This provides approximately 20% of the annual electrical consumption of the entrance buildings.