FOCUS 10 REASONS TO BUILD GREEN


7. TO IMPROVEWELL-BEING HELMUT G WALTHER HOSPITAL, BAVARIA


Cutting a building’s energy or water use is simple – just turn everything off. The real challenge is to reduce its consumption while maintaining a comfortable environment. “We believe buildings are for people, so we focus on raising the quality of the indoor environment through high-performance design,” says Jarratt at WSP Built Ecology. “For the majority of companies, their biggest assets are the people who work for them, and providing them with 100% fresh air and removing toxic pollutants directly from the space can significantly improve their productivity and well-being.”


CITY CENTRAL TOWER 1, ADELAIDE


Indoor environment quality (IEQ) is becoming an increasingly important driver in sustainable design, and has been shown to correlate directly to sickness and absenteeism. “Fundamentally, a developer wouldn’t do anything if it didn’t mean they were going to make more money,” says Jarratt. “Through an immense amount of research, we’ve been able to identify that the productivity benefit to clients far outweighs a slight premium in rent. Developers can easily make


8. TO FITWITH THE BIGGER PICTURE


The buildings and their environmental performance are just one aspect of a much bigger sustainability story at two brand new urban areas in Sweden. In the south of Helsingborg, the H+ district is intended to be energy positive, generating more energy than it uses, as a model not only of ecological but financial and social sustainability too. WSP is about to deliver its feasibility report to client Öresundskraft on how this could be achieved by combining energy, water, waste and transport in a closed system.


Meanwhile, at the Brunnshög development, a new science park city in Lund, WSP has been looking at similar systems, and also at the social frameworks that will underpin them. Ambitious energy targets are intimately linked to the broader social sustainability of the development, helping to reduce the cost of living and support a balanced community. “We want all kinds of people to be able to live in these areas, not only the rich,” explains Agneta Persson, Director of Energy at WSP Sweden. “We don’t want it to be a segregated city. We think it will bring people closer together if they’re striving to meet these goals.”


10 SOLUTIONS


Engaging with the residents is also crucial to achieving the goals. At H+, one of WSP’s proposals is to carry out focus groups with people who are expected to move into the area, and younger people in particular – Persson points out that as H+ is not due to complete until 2035, it must fulfil the expectations of those future residents. “We’ve recommended the city to require that all new buildings are very energy efficient and that existing buildings are retrofitted to reduce their energy demand, but we can’t only rely on the technology,” she says. “People have to understand how that technology works and to want to use it in the correct way.”


WEWANT ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE TOBE ABLE TO LIVE IN THESE AREAS, NOTONLY THE RICH


back the cost of their investment that way, or obtain a larger yield if they are cost-neutral, which is often the case.”


In 2006, the recently completed City Central Tower 1 in Adelaide became the first building in South Australia to achieve a 5-star Green Star rating. But its real selling point for tenants was that the building was designed to care for the health and well-being of its occupants. “No one knew much about the technology that had gone into the building – the chilled beam system, for example – but they were willing to pay more for the benefits of the IEQ. The building was fully let by the time it opened, and when the owner sold it on practical completion, it went for a record amount in the market.”


Environmental quality is perhaps even more important in buildings that people travel through, as they have to cope with so many different users. Southern Cross station in Melbourne, Australia, comfortably handles 30,000 passengers an hour at peak times, with comfort being the operative word. WSP’s low-


energy design allows maximum daylight in, while achieving the ventilation and dispersal of diesel fumes, exhaust gases and hot air without any use of electric fans.


And IEQ takes on greater importance still in a hospital. WSP Germany is delivering a replacement for the Helmut G Walther Hospital in Bavaria Lichtenfels, which is aiming for the highest level of the German Sustainable Building Council’s rating system and as close to PassivHaus standards as possible. The systems range from the traditional – incorporating as much natural light as possible – to the very high-tech: phase-change materials will maintain a comfortable temperature in treatment areas. The building will be constructed primarily in the region’s natural stone, there is a cycling and walking strategy, and a planned garden with native plants. “We want to create the best possible conditions to influence the healing process,” says project manager Wolfgang Grossmann.

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