In this episode of "Making Connections," host Nick Layzell, Customer Success Director at Telehouse, is joined by Chris Williams, Technical Director at Black & White Engineering, and Julian Hennessy, Project Director at Telehouse. Together, they delve into the intricacies of retrofitting existing buildings, focusing on a major project – Telehouse South, our latest data centre at the London Docklands campus.
Julian and Chris discuss how retaining the structure contributed to significant carbon offset advantages and enhanced community relations due to reduced local disruptions. Listeners will gain a comprehensive understanding of the benefits of retrofitting from both an environmental and operational perspective, making this episode a must-listen for professionals in the construction, development, and digital infrastructure sectors, as well as those interested in sustainable building practices.
Visit telehouse.net for more information
In this episode of "Making Connections," host Nick Layzell, Customer Success Director at Telehouse, is joined by Chris Williams, Technical Director at Black & White Engineering, and Julian Hennessy, Project Director at Telehouse. Together, they delve into the intricacies of retrofitting existing buildings, focusing on a major project – Telehouse South, our latest data centre at the London Docklands campus.
Julian and Chris discuss how retaining the structure contributed to significant carbon offset advantages and enhanced community relations due to reduced local disruptions. Listeners will gain a comprehensive understanding of the benefits of retrofitting from both an environmental and operational perspective, making this episode a must-listen for professionals in the construction, development, and digital infrastructure sectors, as well as those interested in sustainable building practices.
Visit telehouse.net for more information
Hello and welcome back to making connections our podcast series providing both informal and interactive discussion with industry leaders on the IT challenges and the opportunities facing organisations today. I'm your host, Nick Layzel. I'm the customer success director at Telehouse. And today I'm joined by Chris Williams, Technical Director at Black and White.
Chris Williams:Hi, Nick, thanks so much for inviting me today. As you said, I'm Chris Williams, technical director with black and white at their London office. Black and White is a leading consultancy practice within the data centre sector in particular, I've been involved in data centres for coming on close to 25 years now.
Nick Layzel:Thanks very much, Chris. And I'm also joined by Julian Hennessy, who's the project director at Telehouse.
Julian Hennessy:Hi, Nick, pleasure to be here with you today as well. And Chris. I'm Julian Hennessy. I'm a Project Director for teleios within the development and construction department. I look after all the major and minor works projects across the campus in the Docklands. Thanks
Nick Layzel:very much, Julian and Chris, great to have you here today. Today, we're discussing the retrofitting process, the process of updating and modernising existing structures. It's all about enhancing the functionality, the efficiency. And critically in these days, I think the sustainability and without starting the buildings from scratch, and at the heart of our discussion today is a prime example of this is the retrofitting project that we've undertaken, or undertaking, still telling how South Campus and Julian and Chris, you guys will be talking all about this, you've worked extensively on the project. So I'd like to hand it over to you to tell our listeners a little bit more about the project as a whole. Julian, maybe you want to kick off and explain to our audience around how you first engaged with black and white and what telehealth his perspective was on, on the requirements that we wanted to fulfil for this new project, retrofitting the building?
Julian Hennessy:Sure, no problem. I suppose the first thing that we got met with from when we acquired the building in 2020 was whether we knock the building down, or we keep the building and retain the existing structure and retrofit the data centre. It was an operational data centre that had a few office floors in it body was completely outdated. And we needed to bring it up to the current standard and the telehealth standard of what we'd expect from all our buildings basically. So first of all, when we got into the building, we first did a lot of technical due diligence with design team, we got into what we could get into at that stage because there was still a tenant in the building. So until 2021, when we actually took ownership and moved in and the existing tenant vacated that's when we actually got to develop our design with black and white efficiently and get into the real nitty gritty of it, get our fingers under the skin of that building and make all the surveys and all that good, exponentially grow into what they were through stage one, stage two design, I think the building itself, it's a phenomenal structure of the innovation and the design innovation that went into it in 1989, you'd be struggled to find these days, it's completely flexible on how you deploy the building. It could have been office floors on every single floor, it could have been datacenter floors on every single floor. Once we started that first initial technical due diligence, we really got to feel that it was a quality structure that we could work with the carbon offset of actually knocking it down and replacing it with something modern day, the carbon structure didn't fit with our ESG goals to the offset would have been sold so much on the actual local area. And the residents in that local area as well, which we have an ethical responsibility to protect as well, from a company point of view, of
Nick Layzel:course, so So at what point was that kind of decision made, then to us obviously had an opportunity to see some of the building but not really dig deeply into it, because of the sitting tenant not able to look at a lot of the fine detail. So So did that become clear very quickly? Or is there a lot more diligence required to kind of finally seal that decision to retrofit as opposed to knocking now,
Julian Hennessy:in that initial period of the first survey, it was very, very limited on what we could see and what we couldn't see. And it was very, we couldn't lift floor tiles, we couldn't remove ceilings. We had to see what was there and it was generally down on the datacenter floors that we actually got to see the physical building. On the office floors. We couldn't do it. It was still the tenant was in there. They were sitting at their desks. So it was really really difficult to find out what the upper floors were like. But what we saw from the ground floor up to level five was the vision to us to make the decision to retain the building.
Nick Layzel:And Chris you first saw the building I guess you were asked to come in once you once tele house has gone through that process. Were you familiar with the building from previous work that you've done? Yeah.
Chris Williams:So yes, we were familiar with the building. But that was from a previous life, we didn't have any record information. When we were first invited to tender, that would have been around eight years previous. So when we received the brief from telehouse, it was really new to us, we needed to get in get under the skin of the building, it was already decided that the building would not be knocked down, you know, the likes of from sustainability points of view, it's always better to refurbish rather than to knock it down. Invariably, it is the grid is so decarbonized. At now, it's a much better route to take. The building also offered a lot of opportunity. It had a lot of constraints. But it offered a lot of opportunities to get more from the building. So
Nick Layzel:I guess when you were first engaged, obviously, telehouse had this brief. And then I understand that the requirements were fairly stringent from a telehouse perspective, maybe Julian, you can cover that a bit. And maybe Chris, you can then kind of talk about how you interpreted those requirements with the you know, with the brief and then obviously, with the constraints and opportunities in the building. I
Julian Hennessy:whitespace, I suppose. But the actual how we got there was pure auctioneering, it was investigating all the emerging technologies and innovation in the market, it was going through every option on every single system to find the most efficient and most sustainable piece of plant and equipment, we could get into that building basically to make the end use and the lifecycle of it as efficient as possible. So the PUE, the lowest we could get it. Again, with limiting impacts on natural resources, it was a bit of free rein that we had, we were going to look at every option wasn't parcelled up or envelope into, they weren't limited. Basically, it was, let's see what the art of the possible is, and get the best out of this building.
Nick Layzel:Okay. And I guess that presents challenges for your careers and opportunities. So looking at all of the options around the around the design, you're not funnelled down this certain direction, but it does that create then more complex approach to looking at all of these options,
Chris Williams:the building itself, the project itself was a very challenging project. The Telehouse brief was quite specific, they would be talking about the IT load the number of cabinets within the space, the IT load per floor that you were expecting, it had other constraints in terms of acoustics. So when you throw all of that into the mix, it was a challenging project for for anyone, we ended up approaching it by not taking anything off the table. Every option in the way of systems in the way of equipment was put forward and discussed with telehealth it was quite a collaborative affair during the whole design process. And Telehouse is very specific, as I say in terms of the gateways that you need to go through that needs to be signed off. I think we ended up with a very good solution, you know, we've really made any efficient data centre from it,
Nick Layzel:How much detail was being discussed at that stage? I mean, obviously, we've got the very high level considerations, such as the impact on the local environment, sustainability, generally, all of the existing utilities and infrastructure from that perspective, from those kind of areas, how much of that detail and what considerations were discussed at that stage.
Julian Hennessy:So we're a part of the community that we are in. So the Tower Hamlets community that was 100% at the forefront of what we were doing. So every time that we looked at something, it was the impact that that was going to cause for the lifecycle of the building. So knocking the building down, huge, huge chunk of carbon offset has gone there, that isn't going to impact the local roads, it's not going to impact the local residents. Again, from an acoustic point of view, like Chris points out, we have local residents that are very, very close to our facilities, we need to be cognizant of those when we're operating at full load. Basically, everything around it has been around the sustainability and the environmental side and reducing that impact in the local community is a massive, massive undertaking for most and that's exactly what we set out to do. And I think we've achieved that from the end design of the building and from what it was, we have betterment all across the building. And going through all of that option earring was the only way we could get to that point.
Nick Layzel:And Chris that was part of Black and White going to remit to look at all of those options and and worked with the Telehouse team to come up with a design to go forward with to progress with and what were what were the key factors from your perspective that formed your vision of the I guess the final design or all the way forward.
Chris Williams:I think we need to also recognise that the building originally operating as a data centre was actually operating with the local authority at higher noise levels. And it's I think, it's, it's fantastic in many ways how tele house were trying to better the noise emissions, they didn't really need to do that. It was really coming from a neighbourly perspective that they were trying to, you know, reduce the noise emissions that they were given to the local area. So for us, the planning constraints were really tight in terms of how far we could increase the height on the roof in terms of equipment, all of that would have a planning impact. And so the noise emissions, the planning heights, what we're actually changing within the building as well, the type of systems that we could go for, when you look at, if it was going to be an all air system, we couldn't go for an all air system, even though that was looked at in in a lot of detail. But we couldn't go for it because it would have a fundamental impact on the appearance of the building. And it wouldn't go down well with Tower Hamlets. So there was nothing that was taken off the table, we needed to go through all of the cooling functions, all of the heat rejection functions. And we came to a conclusion and agreement with tele house on the systems that we've gone forward with.
Nick Layzel:And that Julian I guess, enabled or helped support some of those sustainability issues, obviously retaining the existing building, working within the brief that we had considering the local environment and community in the planning constraints. But how did we look at things like recycling of the existing building materials and moving from that kind of design phase into the construction? And how could we maintain that kind of brief of, you know, the benefits of the local environment over the previous building? Yeah, so
Julian Hennessy:I suppose where we started off with the previous building was a different capacity. There was older infrastructure supporting that capacity. There was a lot older technology on generation, backup generation, all of that type of thing. So where we went into our new building, we've completely replaced the infrastructure all the way through. So we've replaced the mechanical and electrical infrastructure from the start all the way through the building. And we have a new generator, and installed that has 90% reduced NOx levels, we also have from a construction point of view, our target at the beginning of the project was 95% recycling. And we're at 97.75% recycled material, the waste material that's come out of the building. And that goes for all of the old kid as well. So all of the old generators that came out of the building, they've been sold off and repurposed in where they can be repurposed, basically. So nothing has been thrown away in landfill. It's all going to recycling centres or repurposed somewhere else off site. The new instal, we have no, I think from Chris, from your point of view, and our point of view, I think is a lot more efficient, it's a lot, the PUE is a lot better than the old buildings, pe was some of the procurement side of it as well, that we've touched on would have been everything bought for the building and for the project has been based on the most efficient piece of plant through all load steps of our buildings. So through 25% 50% 75 and 100% load. Our pipe work is a new innovative pipe work brand that's come to the market with the same strength and same technical details you'd expect from any other pipe work. But with 90%, reduced carbon footprint.
Nick Layzel:And Chris, these things were considered during that stepping back into that design phase, all of these things were considered and looked at at that time.
Chris Williams:They were I mean, you need to look at these things from day one as early as you can. From the project perspective, the building is a live environment, it's a live data centre, when you're doing refurbishments, when you're doing phasing, it totally changes the aspect of how you approach things. You're now dealing in a live environment that you can't afford to take that datacenter down. I think from a design perspective, there were constraints in terms of spatial constraints and plant replacement. So that became quite an adventure in terms of finding, you know, new ways of being able to get to the kit and to be able to replace it. So in terms of spatial plant replacement, the acoustics, the air quality that we bettered, all of that has really shown itself now in terms of a much more efficient building. We had a P E, probably in the region of two For the original building, we're now sitting at an annualised PUE, at around 1.25 1.26. There's things that still need finalising from the design and build contractor perspective. But the stage two and stage three design was coming out to around the 1.25 1.26. And we had a peak PE of around 1.58. So it's it's changed enormously in terms of what we're getting from the building. Now, structurally, the building had limitations, in terms of how you could approach if you were going to look at adiabatic solutions for the building, there's a lot of water that we need to accommodate in the building. So it was pretty early on where we ascertained that adiabatic solution wasn't really viable. Because the only place that you could support the adiabatic tanks were in the basement, that meant piping everything up to the roof level where your heat rejection and your cooling equipment is located. very inefficient. So in terms of the solution, now, it's much more of a friendly environment in which to service the building as well.
Julian Hennessy:And you from Yeah, just jumping on what Chris said there about the adiabatic side of it as well. Again, the water storage is one thing, the water hardness is the other thing, treating that water to make sure that it doesn't fail up any coils or anything like that on equipment is another thing. But I think the main focus from our point of view was trying to keep that natural resource depletion out of the buildings. So keep that we want to limit our impacts was the first thing that we went with, we want to make sure that it's the most system that you can fill up and you don't have to go near again, just for general maintenance every six months or every month, whatever it is, it requires from the plant itself. I'd
Nick Layzel:say I guess, from a very high level perspective, all of that design work ahead of starting construction, all of the effort that was put in around the sustainability and the ability to recycle, creating more efficiency, it's making an existing building a better building, one that can serve his customers. And also, in a way I guess, support the local community, the local environment in a positive way, is such a key thing. And maybe something that, you know, we don't normally kind of consider as, as a normal part of the process is really exciting and interesting to to understand the amount of effort that was put in to make it the best company.
Julian Hennessy:It's the sustainable approach for the now. But the sustainable approach for the whole lifecycle of the building was the major, major thing that we were aiming for. So water usage might seem like such a small, small thing, but water usage in the volume that we'd need for elevating global temperatures is a massive amount of water that we're not taking from the local community, I think deserve. That needs to be talked to quite a lot. Yeah, it's a big highlight, And General carbon footprint emissions from that building have reduced drastically from the new generators that we've put in, we've put into G generators at into the south support building to support our infrastructure for our backup generation, which is is a huge, huge carbon offset to what we actually had as backup generation in the building when we procured it.
Nick Layzel:Fantastic. Chris touched on one thing, I want one of the design constraints around all of this major work that's taken place, but actually tele house opened the building to customers quite early on in that in that construction process. And I think that was communicated to black and white during that design stage. But what's the reasoning behind that, Julian for offering space to customers ahead of the major construction work,
Julian Hennessy:it was a major decision we did take at the time, customer demand was very, very high at the time, we needed to get some whitespace back to the market as quick as we could from the acquisition. So we went into deliver the library fresh, which was the first project that we brought two floors of whitespace back to the market. We felt that we could manage it in a way for the rest of the phasing out through design stages. We could basically phase the building from the main work side where we're replacing all the infrastructure through really, really meticulous design and phasing of that design, which I think we have achieved with black and white.
Nick Layzel:Fantastic progress. Probably the look and feel of the building has changed extensively since we acquired it a few years ago. There have been lots of developments, all of Chris's team's designs are being put into practice, what significant developments have taken place, what's the kind of what's the look and feel of the environment now.
Julian Hennessy:So I saw as the biggest change will be immediately as you walk up to the building. We've completely replaced all of the perimeter fencing with secure three metre high fencing. We have new security hardening all across campus with CCTV upgrades and upgrades all around. We have a new gatehouse, security gatehouse for customer screening cycle storages new parking facilities all around with electric vehicle charging points or a majority of them from a customer look and feel internally in the building, the reception will stay the same, but there'll be touch points all around to improve that customer experience on site. There'll be automatic vehicle booking for your car coming in the main gate will have customer breakout spaces on every floor, bookable meeting rooms on every floor, and then a larger breakout space and vending area on a centralised floor within the building as well.
Nick Layzel:So Chris is part of the brief maybe as the brief was developed them was to be able to release these new floors or develop a fit out the building in stages, obviously to satisfy customer demand within the constraints of the of the big refurbishment from a black and white perspective, did that pose a particular challenge? huge challenge.
Chris Williams:We can't underestimate having a live environment, what it's doing when you're really trying to refurbish 80 85% of the building around a couple of floors. It was a huge undertaking. But in fairness, black and white, are renowned for live work. And that's something that we've developed and we've been involved with for many years. And so whilst it offers a lot of challenge, it's not insurmountable, you've just got to do that much more planning. The challenge now is changing over from the existing system, incorporating it into the new system. And that's what we're about to embark on.
Nick Layzel:Julian, I think, you know, the sixth and seventh floors, progressing well fitting that out as whitespace to meet that kind of developing customer demand. Where are we with with that now?
Julian Hennessy:Very close, very close to handover. So we're looking at the two floors coming out this summer. We've just received early handover of level seven to start our infrastructural install on that as well.
Nick Layzel:Fantastic. It sounds like it sounds like progress is really going along at a pace. So that's great. Well, thanks both for joining me today. So it's been really interesting to understand, Chris, from your perspective how how much design input goes into something like this and Julian from a from a tele House perspective, really happy to have worked with black and white to enhance something that was there, you know, an already fantastic building into into a building for the future.
Chris Williams:Thank you very much for inviting me. Thank you.
Nick Layzel:Thanks, everyone, for listening to this episode of The Making Connections podcast and I hope you'll join us for the next episode soon.