Attacq is demonstrating its commitment to green building certification by seeking 5-star Green Star Office v1.1 Design, As-built and Interior v.1 certifications.

credit LYT Architecture

Lourens du Toit, Head of Sustainability, Infrastructure and Land at Attacq, explained that the building, designed by LYT Architecture, was built to be stylish and appealing while also meeting the highest environmental standards. du Toit said:

Our brief was for the architects to design a building that boasts a distinctive and desirable architectural style, and that also meets a 4-star Green Star rating as a minimum requirement.

Seeking net zero certification

As with the other buildings in the Nexus precinct, Nexus Building 01 features alternating glazed and solid facades. The building, which consists of two basement levels, a ground floor, three office levels and an entertainment terrace on the third floor, was designed to provide plenty of natural light to tenants. It was also built to enable easy sub-division into tenant suites.

The building features a host of advanced features to deliver best-in-class environmental sustainability. du Toit added:

We pursued net zero carbon level 1 certification to demonstrate our commitment to developing environmentally friendly and sustainable spaces for our clients as well as a broader commitment to a sustainable built environment in general.

credit LYT Architecture

Nexus 01’s sustainable features include:

• Sub-metering of major energy-consuming systems to monitor energy use.
• Photovoltaic panels to reduce peak electricity demand.
• Highly energy efficient lighting.
• All fire suppression systems and insulants have an Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) of zero.
• A specific Waste Management Plan was developed and implemented to reduce the impact of any waste produced.
• Water efficient fittings limit the occupant water usage to 0.56 L/day/m2. Sub-metering of major water consuming systems is in place.

The construction phase itself followed the most stringent sustainability standards. A project-specific Environmental Management Plan was developed and implemented throughout the duration of construction to establish guidelines to follow to minimise the environmental impact associated with construction activities.

credit LYT Architecture

An impressive commitment to sustainable development

Elri Syfert, sustainability consultant at Solid Green, noted Attacq’s commitment to making a positive environmental impact in a commercially sustainable way. Syfert said:

They were able to reduce their carbon footprint while also reducing the occupancy costs.

Syfert explains that energy modelling during the design stage of the project compared the building to a notional building design.

Compared to a comparable modelled SANS 104000 building, the Nexus Building 01 showed an improvement of more than 100% carbon emissions reductions.

Waterfall City’s ethos is about creating a green environment that benefits residents and businesses operating within the precinct. Waterfall has adopted an environmentally conscious approach to planning and development. The Nexus 01 building is a milestone in the precinct’s sustainable development path.

Project Team

Owner: Attacq Waterfall Investment
Accredited Professional: Solid Green Consulting
Architect: LYT Architecture
Electrical engineer: Claassen Auret
Fire engineer: Plantech
Mechanical engineer: Adaptive Resource Engineers
Quantity surveyors: RLB Pentad
Structural engineers: Pure Consulting
Sustainable building consultant: Solid Green Consulting
Wet services: Spoormaker & Partners
Main contractor: Archstone Construction SA
Project manager: Metrum Project Management
Environmental consultant: Seaton Thompson & Associates
Occupational health and safety manager: Cairnmead

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Solid Green has been an integral part of South Africa’s green building journey for the past decade. We are immensely proud of every certification we have been involved with – from the smallest victories to the big ‘Firsts’; and we are committed to contributing towards the important advances that the sector is taking to align itself with best practice worldwide.

Developed by Attacq, The Ingress Waterfall’s 20,000sqm of premium-grade commercial space comprises five office buildings ideally located at the entrance to Waterfall City, with visible street access. The buildings, which are located close to a variety of amenities in a pedestrian-friendly, bikeable precinct, are suitable for single occupiers with their own identity or can be divided into multi-tenanted suites.

“Urban resilience and people’s health and wellbeing have been under the spotlight this year,” observes Miron Naidoo, Property Development Manager at the Attacq Group.

With this 4-Star Green Star SA Office Design rating for Phase 1, The Ingress Waterfall has successfully been recognised as Best Practice by implementing standards that speak to these critical considerations, as well as the need to optimise business efficiencies for our clients.

Madi van Wyk, Director at ARC Architects, explains that, in order to create a park within a precinct, the five buildings were placed along the perimeter of the site ensuring a strong street presence while allowing for a larger central courtyard. “The buildings were designed to allow maximum light into the central square and to create a comfortable human scale that does not feel overshadowed by tall building masses,” she says.

A lot of planting was added to further enhance the human scale of the courtyard, with stepped decks to accommodate different seating environments served by the central cafè comprising two repurposed containers.

Van Wyk adds that a façade design was developed for each type of environment faced, which ultimately ties all buildings together. For the North and East facing façades, glazing with spandrels and horizontal louvres was used to address the high sun exposure and glare. Feature elements called for fully glazed facades where dark tinted, double-glazed view panels were used. The Southern facades have similar glazing with spandrels, but with vertical louvres to mitigate the low Western sun that reaches these facades especially during winter months. The Western facades are more solid with punch-out windows or deep-set balconies.

Energy modelling was carried out in the design stages of the buildings and, compared to a notional building model, Greenhouse Gas Emissions have been reduced by 48%. Sub-metering and an effective mechanism for monitoring energy were provided to facilitate ongoing management of energy consumption.

All individual spaces or enclosed spaces are a maximum of 100sqm in size and are individually switched with motion sensors to offer greater flexibility and make it easy to light only occupied areas. The lighting power density for artificial light was also limited to a maximum of 1.50W/sqm per 100 lux to ensure minimal energy consumption. To ensure a high Indoor Environmental Quality, at least 95% of interior finishes specified are low VOC products.

Water meters and an automated monitoring mechanism were put in place to effectively monitor and manage water consumption. Water efficient sanitary fittings were specified and potable water consumption for landscape irrigation was reduced through the use of waterwise landscaping and efficient irrigation systems. This has also resulted in the building’s discharge to sewer being reduced by 50% against an average practice benchmark.

To create a unified brand identity for the precinct, the same material ingredients will be used in different configurations to give each of the five buildings a unique identity, with the lush use of greenery in numerous planters running between and around buildings to ultimately finish off the palette. The absolute quantity of Portland Cement was reduced by 30% across all concrete uses during construction, and reused or post-consumer recycled content steel was utilized in order to reduce the project’s embodied energy and minimise resource depletion.

The steps taken by the developer and professional team to implement sustainable construction and operations at The Ingress Waterfall take into consideration the important balance between environmental concerns, economic feasibility and occupant health and wellbeing.

Project Team

OWNER: Attacq Waterfall Investment Company
ACCREDITED PROFESSIONAL: Solid Green Consulting
ARCHITECT: ARC Architects Pretoria
ELECTRICAL ENGINEER: Claassen Auret Electrical & Electronic Consulting Engineers
FIRE ENGINEER: WSP
LIFE SPECIALIST: Schindler
MECHANICAL ENGINEER: Q Mech Consulting Engineers
QUANTITY SURVEYORS: RLB Pentad Quality Engineer
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS: EDS Africa Consulting Pty Ltd
SUSTAINABLE BUILDING CONSULTANT: Solid Green Consulting
WET SERVICES: Green Planet Engineer Services
MAIN CONTRACTOR: Archstone Construction
PROJECT MANAGER: Attacq Waterfall Investment Company
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT: Ecology International Pty Ltd
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Land Arch
BMS SYSTEMS PROFESSIONAL: Classen Auret Electrical & Electronic Consulting Engineers

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