Designed as a multi-tenanted building with maximum flexibility to enable both large and small tenancies, this 19,900m², 7-storey building has a double volume entrance that relates well to the retail centre on the west. An impressive internal atrium covered by a steel and glass roof contains a white cantilever staircase that connects all floors and hopefully entices users to skip the lift for the stairs.

Energy and Water Strategies

To reduce the overall energy consumption of the building, the following strategies were implemented:

• Energy modelling carried out during the design stages of the building helped to reduce operational energy consumption by 42% compared to a notional building model.
• Thermal energy storage reduces the energy demand of the mechanical system and shifts the heating and cooling load off peak.
• Ongoing management of energy consumption is in place through sub-metering of tenancies and all substantive energy loads.
• Occupancy sensors positioned throughout the circulation and common areas ensure that lights are only on when needed.

Water strategies have been put in place to reduce the use of potable water through the efficient design of building systems and accurate monitoring of water consumption. The target for potable water consumption is 0.26L/day/m², reduced from 0.92L/day/m². As a result of this reduction, the building’s discharge to sewer has been reduced by 50% against an average practice benchmark.

Water saving initiatives include:

• Sanitary fittings and waterless urinals.
• Waterwise landscaping and efficient irrigation systems.
• Rainwater collected from the roof of the building is filtered and treated for external irrigation and toilet flushing.

Environmental considerations

Zendré Compion, Senior Sustainable Building Consultant, explains that the site’s ecological footprint was minimised by using a site situated within a municipal approved urban edge and by redeveloping a previously occupied site. “To reduce light pollution, outdoor lighting was designed so that no lights shine directly up into the night sky,” Zendré adds.

This is because over-lit buildings can have a devastating environmental impact on nocturnal creatures by disorientating them and changing behavioural patterns – which impacts urban ecosystems. Accordingly, the brightness of all external lighting on balconies, parking areas and walkways was aligned to the minimum required maintained illuminance for these areas.

All thermal insulating materials used in the project have an Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) of zero, ensuring no adverse impact to the Earth’s stratospheric ozone layer over the long term. The project has also taken a significant step by decreasing the total amount of Portland Cement by 30% in all concrete applications, thereby minimising the consumption of energy and resources during construction. Furthermore, the building incorporates reinforcing steel with a minimum post-consumer recycled content of 54% by mass, underlining the project’s commitment to more sustainable material choices. This emphasis on material characteristics extends to the sourcing of new materials, promoting a holistic approach to responsible material selection.

Ensuring occupant wellbeing

As salaries are the highest cost to companies, all occupied areas receive large amounts of fresh air to ensure a healthy work environment. An abundant supply of outdoor air is delivered at a 66% higher rate than the SANS 10400-O standard, to counteract the accumulation of indoor pollutants. This is achieved via the energy efficient air conditioning, which allows more fresh air to be introduced into the building without increasing the building’s energy use significantly.

Furthermore, paints and carpets have low VOC content, which contributes to a heathier indoor environment for building users.

Park Lane West’s strategic location, flexible design, and focus on resource efficiency, environmental and wellbeing strategies underscore the client and project team’s vision for a more holistic and sustainable approach to mixed-use developments, and their positive impact on urban living.

Project Team

OWNER: PARKLANE WEST CO-OWNERSHIP, MENLYN MAINE INVESTMENT HOLDINGS & BARROW PROPERTIES (Pty) Ltd
ACCREDITED PROFFESSIONAL: SOLID GREEN CONSULTING
ARCHITECT: BOOGERTMAN + PARTNERS
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: BERTA WIUM LANDSCAPE DEVELOPMENT
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER: RWP TAEMANE CONSULTING ENGINEERS
FIRE ENGINEER: WSP
MECHANICAL ENGINEER: C3 ENGINEERS
QUANTITY SURVEYORS: RLB PENTAD QUANTITY SURVEYORS
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS: WSP STRUCTURES AFRICA
SUSTAINABLE BUILDING CONSULTANT: SOLID GREEN CONSULTING
WET SERVICES: WSP BUILDING SERVICES AFRICA
MAIN CONTRACTOR: BARROW CONSTRUCTION
PROJECT MANAGER: BOOGERTMAN + PARTNERS & MMIH
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT: LEAP ENVIRO
INTERIOR DESIGNER: BOOGERTMAN + PARTNERS INTERIORS
OCCUPANTIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY MANAGER: CAIRNMEAD

The post Park Lane West: Shaping Sustainability in Urban Living appeared first on Solid Green Consulting.

Adaptable floor plates, which allow for churn and tenancies of various sizes, are organised around a central atrium. Balconies serve each tenancy and help to further articulate the building’s façade. The multi-volume atrium is crowned with a lightweight skylight that won the Association of Steel Tube and Pipe Manufacturers (ASTPM) Tubular category at the SAISC Awards. Another strong architectural element is the atrium’s singular cantilevered staircase that connects all floors internally and promotes user activity by enticing staff and visitors to use the stairs rather than the lifts, thus contributing to occupant wellbeing.

“This kind of human-centred design thinking can have major implications for how we design and build more sustainably in the future,” comments Zendré Compion, senior sustainable building consultant at Solid Green.

I believe that the rapid adaptation everyone has had to make in their daily lives due to the Covid-19 pandemic will inspire many more such simple insights, and small changes that lead to good impact – for people and our planet.

It’s also worth noting that five members of the professional team and four representatives from the contractor completed the GBCSA New Building online Accredited Professional course – so the project was able to contribute towards skills development as part of its creation process.

Both the incentive towards activity by using stairs and the upskilling of team members earned the project Green Star innovation credits, as did the fact that it is targeting more than one certification, plus the specification of aluminium frames with 75% recycled content, for use in exterior fenestration and internal shopfronts partitions.

Compion adds that most of the buildings in the Menlyn Maine precinct have only cold water supplied to their ablution facilities, which not only saves on electrical costs but also goes a long way to reducing material consumption in the form of additional geysers or hot water systems, pipes, valves and heat pumps, as well as long-term maintenance of these systems. She says:

The building was delivered as shell and core, with the tenant fit-outs to be executed on a different contract to integrated fit-outs. This ensures less construction waste throughout the building life span than a typical generic office fit-out.

The project has significantly reduced potable water use through rainwater collection and by installing waterless urinals as well as other water wise fixtures and fittings. Together with water wise plant selection, moisture sensors and drip irrigation, the demands on the irrigation system have also been reduced by at least 50%.

The building has a thermal energy storage system (TES) that uses a phase change material to store cooling energy to be used at off-peak times, thereby reducing the energy use of the HVAC systems. Fresh air is provided into the building at a rate of 66% above the SANS standard; and, to enable effective management of resources and early detection of any issues, energy uses of 100kVA or greater, and all major water uses, are sub-metered and controlled via an advanced BMS.

With user health and wellbeing at the forefront of industry concerns, together with operational cost efficiency, Park Lane West maintains a sector-leading standard for Menlyn Maine, both in terms of its architecture and green building features.

Project Team:

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