海角视频

International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) HQ

Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, UAE

海角视频 played a key role in the realisation of a world-class, highly efficient and sustainable office complex at the heart of the United Arab Emirates鈥� most exciting sustainability-focused urban development.

The International Renewable Energy Agency鈥檚 (IRENA) headquarters in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, exemplifies the vision of Masdar City 鈥� a new sustainability-focused development, encompassing more than 3.8km虏 in a former stretch of desert close to Abu Dhabi International Airport.

The sustainable city and technology hub is being developed as part of an ambitious plan to create educational and commercial zones for the research and development of sustainable design and energy technologies 鈥� creating a new home for green innovation and sustainable living.

At the heart of the new city, the Grade-A office building has been designed by Woods Bagot and developed by Masdar, the company responsible for delivering Masdar City as a low-carbon, sustainable city.

The building physics dictated the passive design strategy for IRENA, with our experts determining a 鈥渢riangular donut鈥� as the most thermally efficient massing.

With 50C heat outside, minimising the amount of exposed glazing was critical, but this had to be balanced with enabling sufficient natural daylighting within.

Electronic control fan coil units were used within the MEP infrastructure design 鈥� a cutting-edge technology for the time, helping to further minimise operational carbon.

Rigorous energy modelling ensures the building performs 52 per cent more efficiently than the baseline ASHRAE 90.1 energy model.

Challenge

The focus of the design was to create a highly-sustainable Four Pearl Estidama-rated commercial building, which exemplifies the overall development of Masdar City and embodies the Estidama 鈥榝our pillars of sustainability鈥� 鈥� social, environmental, economic and cultural.

A multidisciplinary team from 海角视频 was engaged to support Woods Bagot with design input and insights around everything from and building physics to structural and building services engineering (MEP).

In the heat of the UAE, the key challenge was to achieve a low-carbon building, balancing passive cooling measures, chiefly in terms of shading, with achieving a bright and pleasant working environment. By optimising the building physics, the operational carbon could be minimised, with the most efficient cooling systems and infrastructure.

As the new home of the International Renewable Energy Association, energy considerations had to be at the core of the design. The IRENA Headquarters building also includes speculative commercial space, which, combined with the space occupied by IRENA staff, offers a total floor area of 32,000m虏.

Solution

The IRENA Headquarters will epitomise the sustainability drive of Masdar City, which is 2024 alone saw a 22.7% city-wide reduction in energy use intensity, alongside the generation of more than 11.2 GWh of renewable energy, avoiding nearly 2,900 tonnes of CO鈧� emissions 鈥� the equivalent of removing 674 petrol-powered vehicles from the road. Water stewardship efforts saved 30,892 cubic metres of potable water, enough to fill 12.4 Olympic swimming pools, while recycling initiatives diverted 56.2% of waste from landfill.

The design of the IRENA headquarters has been guided by a commitment to conserving energy and water, while also aiming to enhance biodiversity, reduce the use of materials with high embodied energy, and create an appealing, habitable, and inspiring space for its occupants.

Our multidisciplinary team supported Wood Bagot on the project through to the end of schematic design. As part of the initial stage, we assessed the plot and advised the client and design team on the most efficient massing and shape for the building in terms of achieving thermal efficiencies on the site. We worked with early-stage optimisation tools, which at the time were in their early stage of evolution and were offering a cutting-edge technological insight. Our experts were able to determine that a 鈥渢riangular donut鈥� form would provide the most efficient practicable massing in terms of external envelope to internal volume ratio.

This enabled the progression of the design as three linear elements, joined by three corners at the points of the triangle. This design impactfully minimised the envelope 鈥� and the associated thermal gain 鈥� while ensuring natural daylighting throughout the working spaces. Fins were tailored into the facade design around glazing to further deflect direct solar gain.

The central courtyard created by the triangular form and shaded by a solar PV roof provides an additional semi-conditioned space that can be used for events.

The result of the carefully tailored building physics was to minimise the requirements around mechanical cooling, which alongside efficient MEP systems, helps to minimise the building鈥檚 operational carbon intensity. Electronic control (ECDC) fan coil units were used within the MEP infrastructure design 鈥� another cutting-edge technology for the time, helping to further minimise operational carbon.

The air conditioning system recovers up to 75% of the energy from exhaust air and uses it to pre-cool incoming fresh air. This is achieved through high-efficiency rotary wheels that reclaim energy typically lost in traditional HVAC systems

High performance, low energy artificial lighting was incorporated throughout to achieve a high standard of visual comfort, aesthetics and functionality while providing more than 30 per cent improvement in associated energy demand compared to minimum ASHRAE energy efficient design standards.

A rooftop-mounted solar PV array generates some 8.5 per cent of the building鈥檚 energy requirements, further driving down its carbon intensity, despite the cooling demands of the arid environment. The focus on reducing potable water through efficient plumbing systems saw a reduction in water usage by nearly half (48 per cent) compared with a 鈥榯ypical鈥� Abu Dhabi office building as defined within resource studies published in conjunction with the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council.

Value

Masdar City, which hosted parts of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP-28, is setting the standard for sustainable urban communities. The IRENA HQ stands as an exemplar of this vision at the heart of the development.

Our multidisciplinary team provided a broad range of expertise that helped to shape and inform the architectural design from the earliest stages, ensuring the building achieved maximum thermal efficiencies, to enable occupant comfort, while minimising the need for carbon intensive mechanical cooling systems.