As one of North America's largest providers of hydroelectric power, Manitoba Hydro's commitment to environmental protection ranges from large-scale, high-profile institutional programs to the day-to-day efforts of management and staff performing their daily duties and responsibilities. As a functional representation of this all-encompassing commitment, their new headquarters building is conceived as a LEED™ Gold corporate high-rise.
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Sustainability Features |
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Floor-to-floor heights and floor plates sized to optimize daylight |
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Double-facade exterior walls with internal sun-louvers |
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Energy efficient supplemental ambiant lighting/task lighting balance |
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Natual ventilation, solar chimneys |
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South-facing atriums |
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Flexible, open floorplates |
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Exposed radiant concrete ceilings |
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Geothermal heat exchange system |
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Living green roof |
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Charged to develop a sustainable lighting system, Pivotal® Lighting Design, part of Affiliated Engineers, created a three-tiered hybrid system that is daylight-centered, user-controlled and flexible for future growth. Natural lighting is employed through the careful siting of the building and design of the building form. Daylight is controlled by a double skin curtain wall with integral, digitally controlled internal louvers. Supplementing the unparalleled full-spectrum qualities of natural daylight is a unique ambient and tasklighting system providing for high visible acuity with highly efficient lighting power density.
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Exterior Rendering
Rendering courtesy of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects |
Integrated into the existing urban fabric of Winnipeg, the 22-story, 695,742 square foot Manitoba Hydro headquarters (Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg, with Smith Carter, architects) is scheduled for completion in 2007. The facility will provide workspace, meeting rooms, conferencing facilities and food service for 1,800 employees and tenants, and mixed-use public space at ground level.
The energy use goal for the facility is a 60 percent reduction against the Canadian Model National Energy Code for Buildings (“mNECB”), surpassing C-2000 requirements. TransSolar is serving as the project's energy consultant. A living green roof of grasses, moss and lichen, enhanced open public park and courtyard at ground level, heat island reduction with underground parking, and access to mass transit supplement the Manitoba Hydro building's prominent LEED™ Gold-targeted sustainability features of:
Passive systems for ventilation, heating and cooling are optimized by solar- favoring building orientation and the unique form of two large masses separated by lightly structured, transparent, south-facing atriums that function as solar collectors, air exchangers, air handlers and air shafts.
A translucent double curtain wall façade provides a high performance envelope that reduces heating and cooling loads by providing a buffer to extreme outdoor temperatures. Operable windows in the inner wall add to natural ventilation at seasonally appropriate times of the year.
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Lighting Details
Click images for a larger version |
Reduced lighting requirements optimizing daylight via greater floor-to-floor heights and narrower floor plates, and sun louvers integrated in the translucent double curtain wall.
Hybrid lighting system of natural daylight, ambient fluorescent lighting with low- energy electronic ballasts, and individually controlled task lighting, achieving 300-500 lux, with a lighting power density of only .8 watts/square foot (compared to ASHRAE 90.1 standard of 1.2)
Open floorplates for optimal flexibility, accommodated by light fixture placement between bays that allows moveable wall placement for creating individual perimeter offices as needed.
Geothermal system for ground heat exchange, extracting heat in winter to warm the building, and cooling the building in summer by returning heat.
Exposed radiant concrete ceilings maintain building temperatures. |