It is not just the endless rain that Manchester has suffered over the last few weeks that has left the ISG site rather wet and muddy – drilling bore holes for the Gallery’s new ground source heat pump system dredges up vast quantities of wet, muddy, slurry from deep underground. Installing such a system requires space, something that we benefit from being situated as we are in Whitworth Park.

The Design Team have chosen to install a vertical system that buries pipework within a series of boreholes across a borehole field in the new Art Garden, indicated in the diagram by the area coloured pink. These boreholes are around 150m deep, and each contain several pipes.

The pipes don’t look too exciting as they stand, but ultimately water and anti-freeze passing through the closed loop system of pipes will absorb the naturally occurring heat stored in the ground. This heat…