101 Cleveland Street, London

Situated in the heart of London’s Fitzrovia district, the residential development of 101 Cleveland Street comprises three separate blocks for which Designer Group asked Colt to develop and install smoke and environmental ventilation systems.

Two of the blocks were similar in design and taller than the third block (11 and 6 storeys high, respectively) and called for mechanical ventilation, which we supplied in the form of Coltshaft constant systems. The Coltshaft system consists of a fan that is installed on the roof and a shaft which passes through multiple levels of the building. On each level, a damper controls the direction in which the smoke flows from the fire through into the shaft and out of the building. In addition to providing smoke ventilation, environmental ventilation was also provided in the larger of these two blocks using the Colt CoolStream evaporative cooling system. Using the natural process of evaporation to remove heat from the air, our CoolStream systems are an efficient, cheaper and safer alternative to traditional air conditioning systems – they are frequently used for environmental ventilation in residential projects such as this where exact, pin-point control of temperatures is not required. As the third block in the development was smaller than the other two, a fully natural solution using Colt AOVs was sufficient and there was no need for mechanical extract.

The development’s single-level car park also called for a natural ventilation solution. To help move the smoke around and out of the building, we installed Colt Cyclone induction fans. Designed to reduce the concentrations of polluted air and to assist with the extraction of smoke trapped in car parks, Cyclone fans are low-profile, high velocity induction fans that direct polluted air towards extract positions. They are popular because they eliminate the need for costly and bulky ductwork, thereby saving car parking spaces and reducing noise.

In addition to assisting with smoke control, these fans are also controlled by CO detectors that activate the fans to run at full speed once a certain level of CO has been detected. This helps to keep car exhaust and other fumes generates by vehicles at safe levels.