Westgate Oxford Shopping Centre secured with NOVENCO’s reliable ventilation systems

Before its transformation, the old Westgate Centre was more than 40 years old and situated in the heart of Oxford, one of England’s most historic cities. It is also well known for the prestigious university established in the 12th century.

Westgate Shopping Centre is the new 800,000 square feet retail and leisure destination and is now open and is home to the three-storey retail centre, together with a 1,000 space underground car park and 61 new residential properties. The new Westgate Oxford will include over 100 new stores, 25 restaurants and cafes, a boutique cinema, roof top terrace dining and a wealth of new public spaces. In other words, the new Westgate Oxford is an exceptional and inspirational destination like no other.

TWO LEVELS OF SAFETY

For this large reconstruction NOVENCO Building & Industry was contracted to design, supply, install and commission the smoke ventilation systems for the whole development. This includes mechanical smoke clearance systems for the large two-level underground car park, loading bay and service yard. All natural and mechanical AOV stair systems were also part of NOVENCO Building & Industry’s scope of delivery on this large project.

EQUIPMENT DELIVERY

For the car park ventilation system NOVENCO Building & Industry supplied 40 jet fans and 2 large extract shafts. The jet fans are a mixture of our AUT 400 basic jet fans and our CGF 500 slimline jet fan used in areas with limited height availability.

The car park extract shafts are fitted with 2 pcs ACN 1400 and 2 pcs ACN 1600 smoke extract fans, delivering a combined extract rate of more than 500.000 m³/h. Large silencer packs, designed, supplied and manufactured within the SCHAKO Group have been fitted within the extract shafts to bring the sound levels down significantly. The whole system is controlled by a combined CO and NOx detection system. Separate smoke clearance and gas detection systems were required and installed in the service yard area and the loading bay. The extract fans for the loading bay have been installed in purpose-built acoustic fan frames fully assembled in the factory. In total 16 smoke shaft systems have been installed in the firefighting lobbies and escape stairs.

All systems are linked via a sitewide network, providing a clear status indication at the management suite, ensuring ease of use for the end user and early detection or activation of any of the systems. All in all the equipment provided by NOVENCO Building & Industry secures the highest level of smoke ventilation to the visitors and users in the case of a fire.

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