A new office building of the Shanghai Construction Group (SCG), called SCGZero+, is taking shape in the Taopu Zhichuang development in the Putuo district, northwest of Shanghai. The Australian architectural firm responsible for the project’s design, Decibel Architecture (or dB(A), as they spell it), claims that this building will be “the first “5 Zero” office building – zero carbon, zero energy, zero water, zero waste and zero formaldehyde”. It aims to achieve “the world’s most exemplary status” in sustainability, with the highest scores in the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), BREAM (Building Research Institute Environmental Assessment Methodology), WELL (the first scoring system for buildings in terms of occupant health and well-being), GBEL (Green Building Evaluation Label, an index of the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development) and China Healthy Building. To achieve its goal, dB(A) applies green concepts and technologies throughout the building’s entire life cycle.
In the design: realised in “globally distributed virtual offices“, which minimised CO2 emissions directly attributable to the process.
In the construction: the project adopts the prefabrication methodology and the modular system, which reduces noise, gas emissions, wastewater discharges and solid waste; and when the latter is generated, it is classified “according to its origin, composition, physical and chemical properties, etc., for reuse, recycling and recovery where possible”.
In its operation and maintenance: with the façade as a “key connection to the world”; airtight, triple-glazed, prefabricated, it allows natural ventilation and water collection; it is composed of structures that interrupt the thermal bridge; in addition, through the views and the entry of natural light, it facilitates the direct relationship of its occupants (more than 400 employees) with the outside; The interior lighting uses “daylight sensors and circadian lighting systems” to adjust the colour temperature to the weather and the context, thereby reducing energy consumption and avoiding the fatigue caused by traditional lighting systems; in addition, there is a profusion of green areas and landscaped spaces, and solar panels are installed on surfaces exposed to the sun’s rays.
So, as we see it, SCGZero+ “communicates and celebrates the cycles of the natural world, and culturally educates about the connection of our bodies and businesses to the complex, subtle and powerful rhythms of nature“.
