The stacked pavilion concept, groups four to six-storey workspace communities with surrounding landscape terraces, and facilitates the collaborative nature of contemporary office-based work. Complementing the tower is a flexible podium with a central courtyard, and a looping plan encourages collaboration and challenges ‘nesting’. The forest courtyard features four circular pavilions that can be used as breakout spaces and for meetings.
The proposal reduces carbon emissions by addressing construction, energy consumption and energy generation. Taken together the three strategies reduce carbon emissions per square metre by more than 60%. With mass engineered timber (MET), the total embodied carbon emission can be reduced by 50%. Innovation in comfort and energy design can reduce the electrical energy demand of the office spaces by 30% while onsite photovoltaics can produce approximately 20% of the building’s electrical energy demand.
An innovative structural concept defines the tower’s table form. The tower core and structural frame of each pavilion are made of steel while intermediate floors are constructed of a hybrid of steel and timber. By replacing four intermediate floors with MET floorplates, the total embodied carbon per table is about zero kilograms per square metre of office area, resulting in a carbon neutral highrise.
Conventional air conditioning is replaced by energy efficient ‘adaptive cooling’. Set within a raised floor, the gain of area without the need for mechanical plant rooms makes for a highly efficient and flexible floorplate. This is complemented by a façade design optimised for high daylight autonomy whilst minimising glare probability and solar heat gain. The result is a more than 50% reduction in electrical use compared to a typical building of the same size.
As well as minimising energy consumption, the proposal maximises energy production. About 20% of the total electrical energy demand can be harvested on-site. PV cells are placed on all roof surfaces and embedded into the lamella that shades the building’s glazing. Energy harvested on the podium is enough to satisfy its forecasted consumption, meaning the proposal combines a carbon-neutral tower with a net-zero energy podium.
With an emphasis on creating lively informal workspaces, the project accommodates contemporary and emerging models of office work. Generous and flexible layouts achieved through the efficient design of services mean that the project also anticipates ways of working not yet known; the project is considered a response to the climate inherent to the architecture. Neither appendage nor afterthought, material and energy flows is placed at the fore, and the result is a new ‘image’ of the contemporary highrise in the tropics. The project is expected to be completed by August 2023 providing Notice of Approval Conditions are confirmed in 2021.