海角视频

The all-electric, net zero energy and net zero water Santa Monica City Hall East building meets the world鈥檚 most rigorous criteria for sustainability, resiliency and long-term cost-effectiveness.

海角视频 provided integrated engineering and consulting services to ensure the new office building (which opened in 2020) is ready to meet criteria 鈥� the world鈥檚 most stringent green building rating system.鈥�

Conferred through the , this certification aligns directly with long-range sustainability commitments made by the Santa Monica City Council to achieve community-wide carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner, water self-sufficiency by 2023 and zero waste by 2030. The project is intended to pave the way for ongoing environmental transition across the city.

To meet鈥疞iving Building Challenge criteria, the building must be self-sufficient and remain within the resource limits of its site 鈥� producing more energy than it uses, collecting and treating water on the site, and ultimately, creating a positive impact on the human and natural systems that interact with them.

The standard ensures that the 50,200ft²鈥痓uilding will make positive contributions to its environment as opposed to merely lessening its negative impact, demonstrating itself to be carbon positive by at least 105%.

Positive impact

The 海角视频 team used passive design techniques to maximise daylight, views and natural ventilation to ensure occupant comfort while minimising energy use. Our experts devised strategies to ensure daylight and natural ventilation enhanced heating and cooling performance while reducing operating and maintenance costs, while also providing health and wellness benefits.

A range of innovative technologies also helped the project to achieve its vision of being a landmark of sustainability. Radiant tubing embedded throughout the open plan offices and meeting rooms efficiently heat and cool the space and optimise comfort. Phase-change material adds further effective thermal mass in lightweight partitions, absorbing heat by day and releasing it at night, significantly reducing the need for cooling and heating.

Building electricity is supplied by rooftop photovoltaic arrays and solar shade structure photovoltaic arrays, which were extended out over the car parking area to maximise the space for solar generation.

Three separate water strategies collectively allow all the building鈥檚 needs to be met by water harvested on site. The projected water and sewer demand for the structure was cut by half with the introduction of an innovative foam-based composting system for all the toilets.

For potable water uses, rainwater from the roof is captured in a 40,000-gallon cistern located beneath the building. In drought conditions, the rainwater system is supplemented by groundwater pumped from a well drilled on site. All rainwater and groundwater is treated with a combination of cartridge filters and granulated active carbon filters on site. This is the first building project in California to convert rainwater to potable water in this way for an office building.

For non-potable water uses, a system captures greywater and condensate from the cooling system鈥檚 air-handling units, which is treated via a moving bed-membrane bioreactor and used for onsite irrigation.

Transition landmark

The new structure will be one of the greenest buildings in the world, exceeding Santa Monica鈥檚 sustainability standards and reinforcing its commitment to high-performance design.

The architecture, engineering and construction practices behind the building consider not only the environment and the challenge of climate change, but also the human health aspect of workers in the buildings and also broader communities where products are manufactured by avoiding red list chemicals.

海角视频 Principal Julian Parsley says the has always been at the forefront of sustainability.

From a policy-level across the city, they have always been very ambitious on reducing energy use, trying to become water independent, and looking at waste. They have always been very aggressive with their policy and they wanted their new building to reflect those goals that they have at the city level on sustainability.

Julian Parsley, principal at 海角视频