Met Office Relocation, Exeter

Surface water management was central to the design of the new Met Office headquarters in Exeter.

(c) Crown Copyright 2003, the Met Office

In 2000 the Met Office decided to relocate for primarily financial reasons. Some of the central aims of the design brief for the new office in Exeter were to ensure an image appropriate to a high-tech, world-leading science-based organisation and to ‘practice what we preach’.

Surface water management objectives were central to this and were achieved through the use of a combination of permeable paved areas, filter drains, swales, traditional piped drainage systems, detention basins and balancing ponds. Extreme event green corridors were also provided to route exceedence flood waters away from the buildings. Water from the balancing ponds is extracted for use in toilet flushing.

Tags: water, buildings and spaces