The Enterprise Centre - University of East Anglia

The Enterprise Centre (TEC) will be the UK’s greenest commercial building, targeting both BREEAM Outstanding and Passivhaus Certification. At £13.4m and with 3,400m2 of space, it will be the UK’s largest Passivhaus building. In addition to achieving low operational energy use, it is substantially reducing embodied energy and carbon through the use of traditional, local, natural materials. The project is driving the regional bio-economy by being the first construction project to use Thetford forest timber and incorporating thatch on the roof and external walls.

TEC will foster collaboration through its lettable space for SME businesses and areas set aside for student entrepreneurs. The Centre for the Built Environment (CBE) is a £2.3m programme to disseminate lessons from the building’s construction by providing business support to 613 local SMEs by 2015. Over 200 local jobs have already been safeguarded thanks to the work of CBE.