We stumbled across Jenny Perkins’ blog this week which provides some fascinating pictures of progress on the masdar Institute of Science and Technology, taken mid May this year. Click on the image below to see more…..
Copyright Jenny Perkins
August 17, 2010
July 3, 2010
Terminal Hangar Facility – Construction Update
Construction progress can now be followed here a “Hard Hat Tour” of the Spaceport site can be viewed here. PHA Consult, working in partnership with URS Corp are the sustainable MEP engineers behind the Terminal Hangar Facility at Spaceport Armerica. Designed by Foster + Partners, THF will be the home of Virgin Galactic.
Key features of the environmental-friendly design include earth-tube tempered air supply, a glycol solar collector array for space heating and domestic hot water, low water use fixtures, adiabatic assisted cooling, day-lighting of major public spaces, and sophisticated energy control systems to attain LEED gold-level certification.
June 17, 2010
Danube Passage – Hungary’s First Sustainable Neighbourhood
PHA Consult have led the sustainability strategy for Budapest’s first sustainable, environmentally-friendly neighbourhood is being built according to the first ever Hungarian designs of world-leading architectural studio Foster + Partners. The project will be devloped by WING Zrt, one of the largest privately-owned real estate firms in Hungary.
Danube Passage is a city center project located on one of the last remaining undeveloped Danube-bank sites in Budapest, combining modern and environmentally-friendly offices, sunny apartments with panoramic views, restaurants, cafés, and a shopping and cultural centre, all in one place. All of this is complemented by the abundance of green space, public parks and a whole range of riverside leisure opportunities.
In terms of its development, the part of Budapest District IX located to the south of Lágymányosi Bridge on the Pest side of the city has, until now, been in a deep slumber. However this area, which at almost 15 hectares is currently Budapest’s largest riverside site still to be rehabilitated, is about to be reborn in a world-class, sustainable development by WING, one of the largest and most stable property concerns in Hungary.
Upon completion of the investment a unique part of the city’s environmental heritage, the Danube riverfront, will gain a new feature on a section of the riverbank that was hitherto inaccessible. The southern silhouette of the capital will be redrawn by the residential towers being built at the tip of the peninsula, which will be Budapest’s tallest new-build apartment buildings. The unique attraction of this new neighbourhood is that it is bordered by the river on two sides, as it will be constructed on the peninsula formed between the Danube itself and the Ráckeve Danube tributary, affording local residents and visitors convenient access to the riverbank, unimpeded and without the need to cross busy lanes of traffic or railway lines.
Throughout the development, priority is being given to environmental protection. The concept is built around sustainable planning and the use of green technologies. As a result of the solutions employed, Danube Passage is easy on the environment, and the offices and apartments of Danube Passage offer a healthier and more efficient setting in which to live and work. Meanwhile, the energy consumption of the buildings, and the related costs, will also be substantially lower.
The energy consumption of Danube Passage could be as much as 40-50% lower than is normal for projects of this kind.
The following environmentally-sound technologies will be used for the first time on the scale of an entire neighbourhood:
- Green roofs
- To improve air quality and the efficiency of cooling, the roofs of buildings in the new neighbourhood will be covered in green vegetation, instead of more conventional roof-covering techniques.
- Use of ground water
- The use of ground water for cooling, irrigation and the flushing of lavatories (grey water usage) is both cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Another environmentally-friendly solution only employed here is the use of water from the Danube for cooling the buildings.
- Solar collectors
- Much of the hot water is supplied from solar collectors located on roofs. In the case of an entire neighbourhood, these add up to a very substantial overall energy saving.
- Optimal orientation of the buildings
- The form and façade of the buildings is optimised by taking into account the path of the sun and the local climate. The special design can lead to considerable reductions in the cost of cooling, heating and lighting the buildings.
- Environmentally friendly materials usage
- Sustainable and recyclable materials will be used in the course of the construction work.
- Construction of bicycle storage facilities and a cycle path
- To encourage cycling, a section of the regional cycle-path network, and (in the underground car park) a bicycle storage facility and adjoining changing rooms, will be constructed.
Text: Foster + partners/WING Zrt
Image © PHA Consult
June 14, 2010
Jameson House Construction Update
The Construction of Jameson House, at 833 West Hastings Vancouver continues apace. Latest images can be seen here. PHA Consult provided MEP engineering and sustainable design consultancy for this Foster + Partners designed tower.
Jameson House
May 27, 2010
D.Y. Patil School of Business, Navi, Mumbai, India
The new School of Management is being designed in the existing Dr DY Patil University in Navi Mumbai, India. The facility is planned for around 3000 students and will provide graduate level degree programs focused on business and management studies. The total gross area of the project is approximately 64,000m² and will provide a teaching faculty block at lower levels and residential units at higher levels.
PHA Consult is leading the Environmental and MEP engineering design of the proposed School of Business. The new development is being designed by Foster and Partners and aims to be at the forefront of sustainability. The D.Y. Patil School of Business is targeting a LEED ® Gold rating by Indian Green Building Council. Achieving such high building performance standards in the harsh climate of Navi Mumbai is a challenging task and shows the university’s commitment to environmental responsibility.
- The design incorporates many features for increased building efficiency.
- The building form is developed to allow for enhanced daylight penetration from the north façade while preventing any direct sunlight from entering the perimeter spaces.
- The building is also being designed to naturally ventilate all the public spaces, which saves additional energy. Advanced modeling and analysis is being carried out to optimize the ventilation design ensuring maximum comfort in the public realm.
- An onsite water recovery plant is proposed for the development recovering upto 95% of wastewater generated from the building to be reused for secondary uses such as toilet flushing and cooling tower makeup water.
- To minimize the dependence on grid electricity, a natural gas driven tri-generation CHP plant is proposed for the building .This will also allow building cooling with absorption chillers driven from recovered waste heat from the plant enabling upto 35% reduction in carbon emission.
- Part of the Hot water for building domestic use is generated from solar thermal panels.
May 25, 2010
German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel visits the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology
Visit Masdar’s Website for full press release.
Progress on the construction of the first phase of MIST can be seen in the video of the occasion:
PHA Consult are sustainable MEP engineers and environmental design consultants for MIST, working with local partners RW Armstrong on this Foster + Partners designed project.
April 13, 2010
Brighton College Woolton Quad – Planning Permission Granted
Consent was today given for the construction of a new addition to Brighton College. The Woolton Quad building designed by architects Allies + Morrison will offer IT suites, staff areas, offices and a health centre and cafe for boarding pupils. Passive and resource-efficient strategies have been proposed to achieve high levels of internal comfort and occupant satisfaction and to minimise energy consumption and running costs.
PHA Consult are acting as MEP Engineers and BREEAM Consultants for ther project which aims to achieve BREEAM ‘Very Good’.
Images © Allies + Morrison
March 11, 2010
Sunlight + Daylight Analysis
PHA Consult today submitted detailed sunlight and daylight analysis in support of a planning application at 11-14 St.Paul’s Road, Cambridge. PHA Consult were approached to undertake site analysis applying BRE Guidance, British Standards and Code for Sustainable Homes criteria. Our team of environmental analysts specialise in the use of three-dimensional computational techniques to provide guidance to design teams that face complex site constraints, working in consultation with planning officers to agree modelling approaches. The application can be viewed online at Cambridge City Council’s Planning Site application 10/0205/FUL
http://idox.cambridge.gov.uk/online-applications/
December 5, 2009
Biometropolis Mexico – Health City Sustainable Masterplan
Foster + Partners, working with PHA Consult, have designed a major new health city masterplan in Mexico.
Foster + Partners Press Release:
“Campus Biometropolis will be a centre of medical excellence, integrating care facilities alongside state-of-the-art teaching spaces, research institutions and laboratories. The creation of a vital new nature reserve to preserve Mexico City’s indigenous plants and animal species is fundamental to the aims of this low-carbon, mixed-use development.
Foster & Partners/Nigel Young
This wilderness area, together with enhanced landscaped zones, will account for half of the site, providing a landscaped setting for the buildings and safeguarding the future of the land through sensitive development. The campus will include offices, apartments, shops and amenities to create a sustainable, mixed-use community. The arrangement of buildings navigates a course around the Pedregal lava fields, a network of subterranean lava tube formations and caves, sections of which will be exposed to encourage scientific investigation.
The site is close to Mexico City’s southern medical cluster and the National University. The scheme integrates hotel facilities for visitors to the hospital and conference centre, facilities for bio-tech industries, clinical studies and a number of specialist units, planned to target six key areas of medicine: cancer, cardiovascular, infectious diseases, pharmaceuticals, nutrition and geriatrics.
Narinder Sagoo/Foster & Partners
Responding to the urban grain of Mexico City, the masterplan integrates public piazzas, pedestrian streets and cooling courtyards. The buildings will be oriented to capture cooling winds from the north. Given Mexico City’s water shortages, the campus is designed to maintain and augmenting the proportion of green space through which water can be absorbed naturally into the aquifer below. Rainwater will also be harvested from roofs, roads and available open space.
Narinder Sagoo/Foster & Partners
The transportation strategy is designed to encourage the use of public transport. Solar-powered electric vehicles will move people around the campus, walking distances are short and a bus connection to the nearby university station will fully utilise the available capacity on a quieter section of the metro line. While parking spaces will be incorporated, they will be located below a raised podium level to create a pedestrian environment and maximise the available space for the nature reserve at ground level.”
PHA Consult were responsible for developing the sustainability and environmental design strategies for the masterplan. Computational environmental analysis was used to develop passive design responses to building form and orientation, energy and resource modelling and international benchmarking all contributed to the development of an holistic approach to sustainability for the project.
PRNewswire:
“Campus Biometropolis will be sustainably designed and built, and will be composed of hospitals, laboratories and medical universities, as well as residential and retail areas. In addition, the complex will include a natural reserve and will become a model for green buildings and water conservation. This project is in accordance with Mayor Ebrard’s plan to transform the city into one of the most environmentally-conscience and sustainable cities in the world.
The medical hub is at the core of Mayor Ebrard’s General Development Plan, which was designed to convert Mexico City into Latin America’s premier knowledge economy. The five-year plan, launched in 2007, aims to create more equity for Mexico City’s inhabitants by building a sustainable and inclusive city, promoting equality through better health, education and technology and improving the competitiveness of the Mexican capital.”
December 3, 2009
Sustainable Engineering Lecture @ Westminster University
This evening Edward Garrod of PHA Consult and Peter Evans of structural engineers AKT, delivered a lecture to students of architecture at Westminster University on the sustainable engineering and environmental design behind MIST – the Masdar Institute of Science + Technology. The lecture was delivered as part of Westminster’s ‘Technical Studies Open Lecture” series. Over 100 students attended the presentation which triggered lively debate in the follow-up question and answer session.
Our thanks to Will McLean for inviting us to present.