Princess presents innovative design award

At this year's Royal Bath and West Show in May 2008, Clinton Devon Estates successfully competed against hundreds of entrants from Gloucestershire to Cornwall to be presented with the Innovative Building Design Award by Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne.

The new Rolle Estate Office boasts numerous environmentally friendly features, including a woodchip boiler - uncommon in a commercial setting - which provides renewable energy to efficiently heat the building in a sustainable fashion, using timber from local woodlands.  A wind turbine, which would produce all the office's electricity needs, is being trialled in the parkland prior to a planned installation later in the year.

Air conditioning has been replaced with a passive cooling system and designers have ensured minimal use of artificial lights by making the most of natural daylight. Recycled materials have been used wherever possible and the roof of the building is planted with sedum. 

The building was designed to evolve with the changing business wo rld and contains flexible open plan areas and an advanced IT infrastructure which can be easily adapted to new initiatives, including Estate wide video conferencing and wireless broadband roaming.

The carbon footprint of the new £1.65 million Rolle Estate Office has been calculated as being about 75 per cent lower than that of the former estate headquarters in East Budleigh.  With the installation of the wind turbine the carbon footprint will be further reduced.