Nando’s were aware that McGoff & Byrne had recently been involved in Carbon Efficient Building projects for JD Wetherspoon and Trafford MBC. They had decided to embark on a project to build an energy efficient restaurant, and required McGoff & Byrne to assist with the design and build-ability aspects of the project. The traditional consultants Architect (Aedas) and Structural Engineer (Bradbrook consulting) had already been appointed and Planning Permission had been obtained. On McGoff & Byrne’s recommendation the Mechanical and Electrical services engineer was appointed (DPC Consulting) McGoff & Byrne had successfully worked with DPC on the JD Wetherspoon project, DPC are at the forefront of low & zero carbon technology. Nando’s PLC agreed to negotiate the project and outlined their brief to the design team. McGoff & Byrne chaired the design team meetings, prepared budgets for the elemental parts of the building and set targets to achieve the client’s aspirations.

The challenges McGoff & Byrne faced were as follows:

To overcome the challenges faced, McGoff & Byrne worked closely with all members of the design team, essentially early collaboration with the Integrated Project Design Team. At the initial design team meeting we set and agreed a design programme with agreed milestones and objectives. We reviewed items that would cause risk and scheduled a series of regular meetings and agreed targets. In the initial meetings the design and costs were reviewed on an open book basis and budgets set for the elemental parts of the building. McGoff & Byrne influenced the design of the entire shell of the project in order to keep control of project costs on an elemental basis; we focussed on the component parts to develop the specification to meet the intended performance requirements of the building designer and collaborated to ensure targets were met.

The low & zero carbon technology was a major factor in the design as we had to accommodate some exceptional items including a grass roof (Cedam), a biodiesel fuel plant (generator), solar panels, photo voltaic roof panels, rainwater harvesting, heat recovery systems, high levels of insulation as well as an essential power supply to cover the unwanted event of biodiesel fuel plant failure. The biodiesel plant , due to size was initially to be housed in the under-croft plant room. As the design progressed and the biodiesel plant was finally specified as a much larger unit, the unit was eventually housed externally in a fenced compound. We managed to reduce costs by housing the unit externally saving on expensive fire protection sound attenuation, insulation and ventilation. Cost / benefit analysis was carried out regularly, particularly where the green technologies were concerned. An example of this is where we, as a project team decided to omit the rainwater harvesting (a client requirement) and put our case to the client, who accepted our recommendations. We utilised off site prefabrication to great effect and to reduce timescales on site.

This £1.2 million project was delivered in just 20 weeks from commencement on site to project completion, including a 6 week design time lead- in. The entire team worked collaboratively and efficiently to achieve the clients objectives. The building has recently been granted its HM Government Energy Performance Certificate and has an Energy performance rating of 7, achieving an A+ Excellent rating.