Green building recognition for engineering firm’s Cape Town building

Engineering consultancy Aurecon has been awarded a 5-Star Green Star South Africa (SA) Office v1 Design rating by the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) for the company’s second office building in Century City, Cape Town.

Aurecon’s earlier premises in Century City were completed in 2011 and achieved the distinction of being the first 5-Star Green Star SA-rated building in South Africa. Print Send to Friend 0 0 “Aurecon is leading by example in designing and occupying green buildings for our own offices,” says Aurecon’s Cape Town office manager Coenie Fick. He adds that Aurecon is “reaping the benefits” of much lower electricity costs with more than 60% savings, pleasant and productive environments, as well as an enhanced reputation in the field of sustainable development.

Owing to their rapidly outgrowing the first 7 000 m2 Century City office premises, Aurecon developed a second building that is connected to the first one by a skybridge. The new building is called Aurecon West.

The versatile design of the new Aurecon West makes provision for the company’s continuing growth in the Cape region, comprising 4 700 m2 of premium office space on three levels, complemented by 3 200 m2 of parking space on two levels. Aurecon is initially only occupying one office level. The remaining floors have been made available for other tenants.

In addition, the lowest office level has been adapted for use as a third parking area, which will enable a convenient expansion of the office space in the future. Continuing the successful project partnership established with the first Aurecon Century City offices, the second building has been developed by Rabie Property Group for owners Ingenuity Property Investments.

Aurecon was responsible for the engineering services and the Green Star rating application, assisted by Ludwig Design Consulting. MaC Architects were again involved with the design of the building. Aurecon West was completed in February at a cost of R92.7-million. “The steep learning curve to address the ground-breaking challenge of achieving the country’s first 5-Star rated building with Aurecon East had the benefit of enabling a seamless delivery on Phase 2,” says Aurecon technical director Heinrich Stander.

The power efficiency that Aurecon achieved for the Phase 1 building had a spin-off for Phase 2 in the form of power efficiency far exceeding expectations, thereby reducing the requirement for backup power. It was, therefore, possible for one of the two backup generator sets to be relocated to the Phase 2 project.

Water conservation is also incorporated into the project, by using treated effluent water from the Potsdam Wastewater Treatment Works. The effluent water is processed within the building to an acceptable level that completely eliminates the demand on potable water for toilet flushing.

Aurecon has accumulated first-hand experience of the positive return on investment achievable with efficient green building design. Phase 1 was the first green-rated building in Century City, while Phase 2 is the tenth. “The trend does not stop there,” says Stander, explaining that the cost-neutral and beneficial green design principles that Aurecon engineers and designers have experience in applying are also proposed for, and generally incorporated in Aurecon’s “nongreen” rated projects.