The already Multi-Award winning Zayed Centre has recently added another accolade to its collection with the 2021 RIBA London Award at the RIBA regional awards. The award-winning project was supplied with FTF's® X-Wing® Radiant Passive Chilled Beams.

The RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) is a celebration of over 180 years with awards and prizes regarded internationally as a mark of excellence, recognising the best in architecture, architects, research, and students. From the 173 projects entered, only 77 were eventually shortlisted / nominated with the Zayed Centre taking home the award on the night.

The 2021 RIBA London award representing the latest in a long list of accolades won by the latest addition to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Campus (GOSH). As previously reported by FTF Group®, the Zayed Centre won two awards at the European Healthcare Awards 2020 (EHD 2020) in Health and Life Sciences and the Interior Design and Arts Award, as well as achieving BREEAM 'Excellent' Certification.

The Zayed Centre, is also shortlisted for the Health and Wellbeing category at the upcoming Architects Journal Architecture Awards 2021.

The use of FTF Group's® X-Wing® Radiant Passive Chilled Beams inside the centre, completed in 2019, will help to reduce carbon emissions by 35% less than required under current Building Regulations. This is all whilst providing the hundreds of clinicians and researchers working inside the centre with the highest levels of Thermal Comfort to allow them to drive forward the new treatments and cures for children with rare and complex diseases.

The centre, with an internal area of over 13,000m², is being used to drive new tests, treatments, and cures for children with rare and complex diseases from lab bench to bedside, with more than 6,000 rare diseases affecting one in every 17 people.

The Zayed Centre spans 8 storeys in total and contains academic research workspaces, seminar and meeting spaces, specialist laboratories, and outpatient clinics.

The industry leading facility houses the latest technologies in a flexible space that enables and promotes a collaborative environment, some technologies used include:

• Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Suite containing 7 specialist clean rooms for the production of clinical grade gene and cell therapies with an additional simulation suite for education and training


• Main Laboratory with over 140 dedicated benches for early development work to test the safety and efficacy of potential new treatments


• 9 Tissue Culture Rooms used for testing potential new treatments on cells grown in the laboratories


• Flow Cytometry Suite for rapidly identifying and sorting different types of cells from one another


• Cardiac Research Suite where researchers can produce 3D models of the heart, a resource needed for exploring new treatments and devices tailored to each child's heart


• An Outpatients Clinic which houses child friendly consultation rooms, a sensory room, interactive artworks, along with educational activities suitable for patients


• Research write-up areas, meeting rooms, and spaces to allow scientists and medical teams at the centre to collaborate and progress with their invaluable work

The centre was named in recognition of the philanthropic support of Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak in honour of her late husband, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan who was the founding father of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Abu Dhabi between 1966-2004. The Zayed Centre is an example of his vision for creating a better world.

X-Wing® Radiant Passive Chilled Beams

FTF Group®'s X-Wing®'s 40% Radiant quotient not only helps to provide effective energy-efficient cooling to the indoor space but also delivers an excellent indoor climate environment which is essential for occupancy wellbeing and performance. This is achieved by providing cooling by both "Radiation" and convection. The products radiant proportion creates no air movement, the cold surfaces of the beam (4 radiant wings per waterway) absorb heat radiation from the building occupants and the warmer surrounding surfaces. X-Wing's® radiant quotient is approximately 40% of the total cooling effect (the other 60% of cooling being generated by the convective cooling).

The ability of X-Wing® to cool by radiant absorption means that, when compared to other passive chilled beam types, FTF®'s X-Wing® Radiant Passive Chilled Beams can deliver up to circa 40% more cooling without any additional air movement, hence approximately 40% less risk of any draft.

In addition to the above radiant cooling process, the only air movement comes from the convective proportion. As cold water passes through the Chilled Beam the warm room air is cooled against the beam's cooler surfaces. This cooled air, which is heavier due to its higher density, then percolates through the punched louvers in the radiant wings. In this way, the air is circulated within the room, with warm air from the room being continually replaced by cooled air whilst still maintaining high Thermal Comfort levels to the building occupants.

You can learn more about the products FTF Group® has to offer by visiting our products page or read more articles about the international projects FTF Group® has supplied on our latest news page. Alternatively, you can contact our Office on 646-571-2151 or sales@ftfgroup.us.