The four-star Green Star Santam Head Office in the Tyger Valley Waterfront has recently undergone a complete interior and exterior refurbishing. The Santam site consists of two buildings: Head Office and Glacier Place. The Head Office building has recently undergone complete interior and exterior refurbishing.

The project

The project consisted of a single freestanding building made up of five floors, a roof garden for the staff and two basement levels. The interior and exterior of this existing building has been refurbished. The design team committed to designing and developing the project to meet the four-star Green Star Office v1.1 As-Built certification requirements.

The facade consists of vertical aluminium screens, precast concrete panels, perforated steel screens and louvers that provide maximum shading and protection from glare.

Sustainable features

The building sports several sustainable features such as:

The building has been refurbished, retaining 90% of its facade and 100% of the structure. Developments that reuse existing buildings significantly minimise materials consumption and associated embodied carbon impacts.

• A total of 3,2% of the project’s contract total value is presented by reused products/materials.
• The building achieves savings by using water-efficient fittings to limit water usage.
• Efficient light fittings ensure minimal energy consumption associated with lighting.
• Occupancy sensors are installed to switch off the lights, should there be no occupants.
• Paints, adhesives, sealants and carpets with low volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were used. Thermal insulation installed has an ozone depleting potential (ODP) of zero to eliminate long-term damage to the ozone.
• A total of 95% of the project’s usable area does not exceed the maximum internal noise levels, contributing to creating a healthy building with appropriate noise levels.

Achievement of innovation points

• The innovation point is achieved by retaining 100% of the building’s structure, which is in excess of the MAT – 02 target threshold. The project was thus rewarded for achieving environmental benefits in excess of the current Green Star benchmarks. In today’s world where a design team chooses to rather re-use existing materials instead of demolishing something and building something new, requires a collaborative design approach.

• Financial transparency: To encourage and recognise the sharing of costs/financial information that will create greater market transparency and awareness of the cost trends related to green buildings. Projects are awarded for this type of sustainability leadership because it speaks to providing data that the industry can then use to make better decisions about going green.

For more information, contact the Green Building Council of South Africa:
Tel: +27 21 486 7900 or 08610 42272
Email: info@gbcsa.org.za
Website: https://gbcsa.org.za/

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