On the Mechanical Ventilation and Warming of St. George's Hall, Liverpool

MacKenzie, W. C.

doi:10.1243/pime_proc_1863_014_016_02

Cited by 3 publications

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“…It was unusual in terms of the depth and number of investigations, but the practice of empirically evaluating buildings in use was not unique to the House of Commons. In the 19th century, various public buildings had been subject of POEs, including, amongst others, the Crystal Palace (Schoenefeldt, 2011(Schoenefeldt, , 2008, the Natural History Museum (Cook & Hinchcliffe, 1996), the Royal Courts of Justice (The Times, 1887, p. 3) or Smithfield Market (Yu, 2015) and St George's Hall in Liverpool (MacKenzie, 1863). The aim of this paper, however, is not to provide a comprehensive history of early POEs, but to use the House of Commons as a site where historic practices can be studied in depth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The House of Commons: a precedent for post-occupancy evaluation

Schoenefeldt

2018

Building Research & Information

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Building scientists have retraced the origins of modern post-occupancy evaluations (POEs) to the 1960s, but this paper shows that the use of POEs and their integration into the process of improving building performance has been a more longstanding practice. Focusing on the postoccupancy history of the House of Commons from 1854 until 1941 as a case study, this paper examines the nature and functions of these earlier precursors of modern POEs. A review of original archive material illuminates how POEs allowed Parliament as an organization to establish a large repository of knowledge on building performance, offering insights into technological, environmental and human factors. To understand the nature of these historic practices, however, it is critical to distinguish between POE functions that were embedded within the routine operational procedures, led by an in-house team of attendants, and those covered by several larger studies. The latter were more in-depth inquiries conducted by the Office of Works in collaboration with parliamentary committees, scientific researchers and in-house technical staff. These historic practices have also highlighted the role of institutional structures in enabling better collaboration between end users and facilities management in the process of operating, assessing and improving buildings in use.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The House of Commons: a precedent for post-occupancy evaluation

Schoenefeldt

2018

Building Research & Information

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“…64 Reid realized another system following similar principles in St. George's Hall in Liverpool. 65 A more complex air handling strategy, following similar principles tested in the mock-debating, was adopted to provide attendance with the flexibility to operate the ventilation in different modes. To allow the system be operated in an upward or downward mode two separate air supplies with their own tempering chambers were introduced, one above the ceiling and another below the main floor.…”

Section: Towards the Personalization Of Environmental Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Houses of Parliament and Reid’s Inquiries into User Perception

Schoenefeldt

2019

Addressing the Climate in Modern Age's Construction History

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How cold the House strikes;" and another man says "I have been sitting here half an hour, and I am in fever:" and if I see the thermometers are too high or too low, I give directions accordingly' 1 William Gosset, Sergeant-at-Arms, 1839In 1839 the Sergeant-at-Arms William Gosset had a long interview with a Select Committee appointed to review the effectiveness of the stack ventilation system in the Temporary Houses of Commons. This had been introduced by the physician and chemist David Bothwell Reid in the winter of 1836 and over the following two years the Sergeant-at-Arms had been responsible for gathering and processing oral feedback MPs on their perception of the level of thermal comfort and air quality within the chamber. At time he gave orders to the attendants of the ventilation to make adjustments. In his interview Gosset highlighted the management of the ventilation was confronted with the challenge of reconciling the results of measurements with the subjective feedback from MPs. This concerns about user-perception represented a central theme in Reid's work in the field of ventilation. In addition to scientific research on the physiological effect of air quality and climate he used experimental studies to underpin the development of his ventilation scheme for the Houses of Parliament with empirical evidence. These experiments began with a test chamber in Edinburgh (1836), and was followed by the Temporary Houses of Commons (1836-51) and the Temporary Houses of Lords (1838-47). The temporary debating chambers allowed him to test and refine principles under real-life conditions over a period of fifteen years and directly fed into the development of a highly sophisticated climate control system realized in the Permanent House of Commons . This paper provides a brief overview of the role of user perception in the development of Reid ventilation system for the Palace of Westminster. User-perception was used as a performance indicator in the day-to-day management of the ventilation, but also it was also a major design factor underlying the development of the ventilation system for the Permanent Houses of Commons.

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“…20 Inquiries into the ventilation of spaces for mass congregation had been made by David Boswell Reid in the context of the designs for St George's Hall in Liverpool and the new Houses of Parliament in the 1830s and 1840s, using elaborate systems of forced air, but Paxton proposed a completely naturally ventilated space, using only limited mechanical aids (Figs 5 and 6). 21 Continuous rows of ventilators were located in the upper wall section of each of the three tiers. Low-level ventilators were also installed at ground floor level.…”

Section: Paxton's Environmental Design Strategy and Objectives For Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adapting Glasshouses for Human Use: Environmental Experimentation in Paxton’s Designs for the 1851 Great Exhibition Building and the Crystal Palace, Sydenham

Schoenefeldt¹

2011

Architectural History

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When the horticulturist Joseph Paxton first published his proposal to house the 1851 Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations inside a glasshouse of enormous scale at Hyde Park, London, the scheme was praised as a more practical alternative to an earlier idea that had been put forward by the Royal Commission for the Great Exhibition’s own Building Committee. However, the feasibility of Paxton’s idea soon became the subject of concern. The use of glasshouses for the cultivation of plants was well established, but could this type of building now be adapted to the task of accommodating artefacts? Could it also provide visitors to the Exhibition with a comfortable environment? A particular worry was the issue of cooling, given that the Exhibition was to take place in summer. Prospective exhibitors anxiously made reference to the hot and humid conditions inside greenhouses such as the Palm House at Kew Gardens and the Conservatory at Regent’s Park, and they criticized Paxton’s idea as a risky experiment. Paxton did not ignore the challenge. He pointed out that his design incorporated shading devices, provision for evaporative cooling and natural ventilation, all of which were intended to maintain comfortable temperatures on hot days. He argued that his proposals had been informed by his previous experience with conservatory design, claiming that he had validated the effectiveness of his ventilation and cooling strategy through smalls-cale experiments at Chatsworth House. That Paxton’s plans were accepted and realized was largely due to good fortune. His design was considered to be the only one that could be constructed in time for the opening of the exhibition, which had already been advertised internationally. The Executive Committee, however, requested that conditions inside the building be carefully monitored. In effect, the Great Exhibition Building at Hyde Park became a significant early experiment in what would now be termed ‘environmental design’ (Fig. 1).

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On the Mechanical Ventilation and Warming of St. George's Hall, Liverpool

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

The House of Commons: a precedent for post-occupancy evaluation

The House of Commons: a precedent for post-occupancy evaluation

The Houses of Parliament and Reid’s Inquiries into User Perception

Adapting Glasshouses for Human Use: Environmental Experimentation in Paxton’s Designs for the 1851 Great Exhibition Building and the Crystal Palace, Sydenham

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