by Ann Withanee — August 3, 2011—The Aurecon office building in Century City, Cape Town, which is nearing completion, is the first building in South Africa to be awarded a 5-Star Green Star SA—Office Design v1 rating by the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA). Developed by the Rabie Property Group at a cost of about R130million, the 7000 square meter office block is also the first building in Cape Town and only the fifth country-wide to achieve Green Star accreditation from the GBCSA. The four other buildings achieved 4-Star ratings.
The new building will serve as the new regional offices for global engineering, management and specialist technical services group Aurecon, responsible for the design of all the engineering services on the project and also the Green Star Rating application, with documentation assistance from PJCarew Consulting. Rabie director Colin Anderson, who was responsible for the development, says they were ecstatic with the achievement, which was “doubly amazing given that we had to complete the building within a normal commercial budget.”
In their quest for a Green-Star rating, the professional team and building owners took into account the Green-Star SA criteria, namely Management, Indoor Environmental Quality, Energy, Water, Transport, Materials, Emissions, Land Use and Ecology and Innovation.
The four-story building, which has been constructed on a podium covering a naturally ventilated semi-basement of covered parking, was designed by MaC Architects, and its orientation ensures maximum indirect sunlight and reduced east and west direct sunlight.
Other green measures undertaken include:
- A state-of-the-art air-conditioning system with a full economy cycle to provide free cooling when outside conditions are favorable
- A state-of-the-art Building Management System that monitors and controls energy consumption
- Treated effluent irrigation and the harvesting of rain water for the flushing of toilets
- High-performance glazing on the windows to reduce glare and radiant heat
- A state-of-the-art Building Management System that monitors and controls energy consumption
Innovative measures include the implementation of a “Green Lease,” believed to be the first in the country, in which both landlord and tenant have undertaken to run the building as it was designed in terms of green building principles. The building is due for occupation in August.
