WORKING CLOSELY with Trillium Property Partnerships and Kier Western, Boyes Rees is delivering a complete redesign of the existing 65,710 m2 site which is home to over 5,000 DVLA staff.

The estate wide development project involves the refurbishment of a five storey office and print facility, the refurbishment of an 18 floor office block, the design and construction of two highly sustainable new buildings, as well as external works and landscaping.

The most recent phase to be completed is the newly constructed 7000 m2 'A Block', which now houses several amenities and welfare facilities and a second floor comprising of office space.

Gary Loo, director of Boyes Rees Architects said, " 'A Block' is an excellent example of a modern day sustainable office building, having been designed to incorporate a number of sustainable features, including the use of grey water recycling and maximisation of natural ventilation. We have designed the building with the aim of achieving a rating of 'excellent' by BREEAM.

"The construction process was also particularly sustainable due to the fact the building has recycled foundations, having been constructed using the foundations of a previous building on the site."

The other new building to have been completed is 'Block F', which now houses an on-site créche. The 500 m2 building has also been designed to achieve an excellent BREEAM rating.

Extensive work has also been undertaken to refurbish an existing 12,955 sq ft, fivestorey office block, as well as the largest element of the project, a 43,620 sq ft, 18 storey office block. The refurbishment scheme has included extensive internal modernisation to improve the working environment, as well as the addition of thermal insulation and new windows to improve the energy efficiency of both buildings.

Jeremy Morgan, estates project manager for the DVLA says, "The site wide redevelopment scheme has so far proved to be a huge success, and we feel the combination of refurbished office space combined with new contemporary facilities has worked out extremely well."

As well as being the lead architect on the scheme, Boyes Rees also undertook the interior design for the scheme, using bright colours and large scale graphics to create an interesting and vibrant working environment.

Work commenced on the multi-phase DVLA refurbishment in 2005 and final completion of the scheme is due in 2010.