The Roman baths were constructed around 70AD in the city of Bath as a grand bathing and socialising complex. The baths are still kept topped up by thermal springs which deliver 14 litres of 46°C steaming water to the complex every second. However, since the late 1970s bathing has not been permitted following discovery of a dangerous amoeba, so the hot water from the attraction has, quite literally, gone down the drain - the Roman Great Drain - to the River Avon. Now, under the £15 million Footprint Project, architect Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, working with engineer BuroHappold, is working on a scheme to capture heat from water passing along the Great Drain for use warming the neighbouring 16th-century Bath Abbey. This ambitious scheme is only possible because under the Footprint Project the abbey's historic floor is being repaired and restored. The floor is completely paved with carved memorial stones, beneath which are the bodies from 6,000 burials. Under the scheme, the memorials will be revealed for the first time since the 1860s, when they were hidden from view by new pews. The team is using the opportunity to install a new underfloor heating system to replace the existing cast-iron pipes and floor gratings, which had reached the end of their life. Underfioor heating is ideal for connection to the low grade heat captured from water in the drain because it operates at a relatively low temperature. It will provide radiant heat to occupants in the Abbey's cavernous interior.
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