{"id":195,"date":"2014-01-17T14:28:03","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T14:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/?p=195"},"modified":"2014-01-17T14:28:03","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T14:28:03","slug":"reconstructing-the-victorian-stack-ventilation-system-of-the-houses-of-parliament-a-historical-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/2014\/01\/17\/reconstructing-the-victorian-stack-ventilation-system-of-the-houses-of-parliament-a-historical-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconstructing the Victorian stack ventilation system of the Houses of Parliament: A historical approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"victoria<\/a><\/p>\n

Up until the\u00a0 1940s the Palace of Westminster was ventilated using a stack ventilation system\u00a0 that originated in the mid-nineteenth century and was technically refined over\u00a0 a period of ninety years, involving several design modifications. It was a\u00a0 nineteenth century example of a mixed mode system, integrating natural and\u00a0 mechanical strategies. Hot air was drawn out of the building using buoyancy\u00a0 driven stack ventilation system, which exploited the waste heat from bodies,\u00a0 smoke (from fire places, boilers and kitchens), gas lighting and the heating.\u00a0 The air flow was assisted by steam jets or coke fires, and after 1904, by means\u00a0 of electric fans. The historic stack system is no longer operational but\u00a0 extensive archival evidence has survived and allows reconstructing the original\u00a0 system in great detail as well as analysing its performance. This project is\u00a0 based on extensive archival research conducted at the Smithsonian Institute,\u00a0 British Library, Parliamentary, National, London Metropolitan Archives and the\u00a0 libraries at UCL and the University of Cambridge.\u00a0This material has not\u00a0 been studied by historians in any depth before, and\u00a0this project has shown\u00a0 how primary source material can be used to reconstruct the design and\u00a0 performance of the historic system in great detail.\u00a0In addition, modern\u00a0 technology and our current scientific understanding also enables \u00a0to\u00a0 re-vitalize and improve the historic system. This possibility is investigated\u00a0 as part current inquiries into sustainable environmental design strategies for\u00a0 the refurbishment of the Palace. The primary research objectives of this\u00a0 project are to regain a critical understanding of the original system, how it\u00a0 was operated and performed under different conditions, using a combination of\u00a0 archival research and technical analysis. Since the start of this project in\u00a0 September 2011 the focus has been on historical research, involving extensive\u00a0 archival research, which included the study of the original project\u00a0 correspondence, drawings, sketches, measured data and scientific reports. An\u00a0 analysis based on historic data, both quantitative and qualitative, has\u00a0 provided detailed insights the system\u2019s actual performance from the\u00a0 mid-nineteenth century through to the 1940s. Archival evidence also illuminated\u00a0 some of the technical issues encountered and the measures taken by the\u00a0 Victorians to improve its performance, including numerous technical modifications\u00a0 and changes to the environmental monitoring and control procedures. The methods\u00a0 used by the Victorians in the development and testing of the system are also\u00a0 studied. The research project focuses on four main areas:<\/p>\n

(1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 reconstruction of the design and management of the historic system<\/p>\n

(2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 analysis of the design development process and the original environmental\u00a0 design objectives<\/p>\n

(3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 study of the post-occupancy history, which includes a detailed analysis of the\u00a0 system\u2019s performance as well as the various technical refinements made\u00a0 throughout its lifetime<\/p>\n

(4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Design-led studies into potential strategies for re-vitalizing parts of the historic\u00a0 system as part of a sustainable ventilation strategy for the Houses of\u00a0 Parliament.<\/p>\n

This project is co-ordinated by Dr.\u00a0 Henrik Schoenefeldt and in 2013 was extended to include collaborations with the\u00a0 Parliamentary Design Authority.<\/p>\n

\"schoenefeldtweb\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The current focus of this collaboration is on\u00a0 ventilation of the House of Lords debating chamber, which includes a detailed\u00a0 reconstruction and performance analysis of the historic system, based on\u00a0 archival research, computer fluid dynamic simulations and surveys of the\u00a0 existing chamber. This analysis is used to re-valuating the effectiveness of\u00a0 the historic system relative to nineteenth century and modern benchmarks of\u00a0 energy efficiency, thermal comfort and air quality. The findings of a\u00a0 preliminary study has been outlined in a report entitled First Report on the\u00a0 Victorian ventilation system of the House of Lords – Its design and evolution,\u00a0 1839-54<\/em>, which was submitted in January 2014. The report focuses on the\u00a0 evolution of the original Victorian system in the House of Lords from the 1840s\u00a0 till 1854, with a particular focus on the design introduced by Charles Barry\u2019s\u00a0 team in 1846 and its subsequent remodelling. This will be followed by\u00a0 design-led research, interrogating various alternative scenarios for\u00a0 revitalizing optimizing the performance of the historic system.<\/p>\n

To read more please visit Dr Schoenefeldt’s staff page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Up until the\u00a0 1940s the Palace of Westminster was ventilated using a stack ventilation system\u00a0 that originated in the mid-nineteenth century and was technically refined … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28911,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[70],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}