SYDESL HEADQUARTER

200, Boulevard de la Résistance, Mâcon, France

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SYDESL HEADQUARTER

200, Boulevard de la Résistance, Mâcon, France

Type

Commercial › Office

YEAR

2010

SIZE

100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft

BUDGET

$1M - 5M

As a zero energy and
zero carbon office building, SYDESL headquarter stands as a unique sustainable
innovation, showing new architectural, technical and conceptual design strategies
and opportunities for office design of tomorrow. Also, despite its unique
energy features, its modesty and reduced size and budget, it is definitely the
world?s coolest office to work!
The project received the
Special Mention of the International Award Ecobuilding Performance.

A DYNAMICS OF TRUST
The project is
initially the result of a positive and profitable collaboration between an
architect engaged in the way of durable construction and a building owner
sensitive to renewable energies and the control of the demand for energy. The environmental determination of the SYDESL
affirmed in the program for its offices was simple: exemplary building,
pedagogy, reproducibility; the objective being to create a reference on a
regional scale intended for showing a new way to build. This resulted in a
total requirement on the environmental quality of the project following the
principles of HQE (High Environmental Quality, French equivalent to LEED) and
an energy approach with a double objective of building with low energy
consumption and of positive energy (produced energy > energy consumed in kWh and in ?).
AN OPEN DESIGN
REFLEXIVE STRATEGY
The studies begin
with a dynamic phase of analysis consisting in defining a common ground with
the building owner and a program of design, exploring the potentials of the
site and the program, in confrontation with environmental, energy and economic
objectives. The choice to present
several drafts was of course not the result of a hesitation, but rather showed
a real opening with respect to the users. More than the choice of a solution,
it is debate and pedagogy emerging in ?between? the proposals which are
favourable, on the one hand, with the collection of information and, on the
other hand, with the appropriation of a solution by all parties. The solutions
were presented besides in a contradictory way from a point of view economic,
environmental, architectural, urban and functional. This step was maintained
throughout the development of the project thanks to meetings of organized exchange
by the building owner and animated by the architect.
ARCHITECTURAL AND
URBAN STRATEGY
The plot is located
in a future office area in Mon (Burgundy, France) which takes place on the
site of an old matches factory. In the long term, a seedbed of company
dedicated to the innovating activities centered on sustainable development will
be established. The headquarter office of the SYDESL being the first building
built on this site, it was meant to provide an architectural and urban
guideline in order to embody sustainable issues strongly marked in the overall
urban project. The draft selected
proposes a simple form which takes the alignment of the already existing
buildings with respect to the site and to support the urban integration of the new
construction. In coherence with this strategy, it was decided to locate the car
park on the northern part of the plot with an organic shape making it possible
to preserve the existing trees and to avoid the effect ?supermarket carpark?.
The general orientation of the building offers a long facade to the South optimize
solar gains with an incidence of 10 approximately towards the West. North elevations
are protected by a planted hillock which makes it possible to reduce the
exposure to cold, heat and wind and to improve total thermal comfort of the
building. The southern and western parts
of the plot are subject of neat landscape installations with plantations of
flowered meadow giving an original and natural character. The southern part
accomodates moreover a pond for rain water with a wet vegetation, contributing
to the landscape quality and diversity of fauna and the flora on the plot.
ARCHITECTURAL
IDENTITY
As a flagship for new
way of building, SYDESL headquarter was to affirm an architectural vision. The
choice was made on a rational, easily identifiable architecture as durable and
conveying a simplicity of morphology, volumes and materials. The intensive use
of wood is given to see with parsimony in the form of a crowning of the whole
of the second floor. The choice of an openwork horizontal cladding bored with openings
of varied sizes reinforces light and abstract dimension building. The ground
floor is largely glazed in southern and western frontage to profit from solar gains.
This strategy makes it possible to ensure in an optimal way the functionalities
of the facades: safety, solar gains, sights, reduction of the thermal losses,
daylight, etc? The architectural unit is marked by two saw-teeth roofs which refer
to the industrial architecture of the site. The latter are directed North-South
to profit from optimal sun radiation for the photovoltaic power installation in
the South and natural light in north which is continuous and without risk of
dazzling and overheating, with the image of the of production workshops or
artists. Lastly, this unit is organized around a wintergarden on all the height
of the building by taking again the profile of the saw-teeth. This symbolic element,
contributing to the solar bioclimatic gains, is the highlight of the building. The result is a simple architectural identity
which affirms the environmental dimension of the whole adequately with the professional
purposes of the client as a major actor of energies in the region.
A PLEASANT AND
COMFORTABLE WORKSPACE
SYDESL headquarter is
before all a workspace for the whole of the technical and administrative team
and but also for visitors. It must thus be accessible, convivial and
comfortable in particular by privileging the daylight and the sights on
outside. The access to the building is
done symbolically by the large wintergarden, bioclimatic space par excellence,
interface between interior and exterior, fresh in winter, a little hot in
summer. This garden offers to the visitor a unique experiment as of his arrival
in the building and acts as a thermal buffer, dividing spaces of the ground
floor into two part: reception and workspaces.
Ground floor gathers public reception areas (conference room, information
spaces and restrooms), staff areas (kitchen and cafeteria). The workspace part
of the ground floor includes semi open-space and services (storage, supplies,
server room, etc?). The second floor is
organized around the bioclimatic greenhouse and includes closed traditional
offices, for the functions requiring confidentiality, and half-open offices
with separative elements of furniture of 1,50 m to 1,80 m for the activities
requiring a strong interaction in work. The whole of the offices and
circulations is bathed of natural light. A large space in mezzanine to be
arranged is available under the Northern saw-tooth roof to absorb the future
requirements in workspaces for Sydesl. One distinguishes there the arcs from timber
structure which give to this volume a unique quality.
TECHNICAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
Beyond the initial will
of Sydesl, the building reaches at a level of efficiency never reached today
for a building of this size. Indeed, more than the objective low energy
consumption (70% less than French regulatory requirements), the building
reaches a ZERO ENERGY objective and especially, for the first time, a ZERO
CARBON objective (carbon stored higher than the carbon emitted for construction
and daily uses) is achieved within 15 to 20 years. At this time, the building
will have completely cancelled its total carbon footprint. Moreover, from an
environmental point of view, as well for the respect of planet as for health
and the good being of the users, a rigorous acceptance of HQE was followed. To be able to claim to be one of the most
virtuous buildings in the world from an environmental and energy point of view,
the Sydesl building was to reach a very low level of energy consumption. This
objective is achieved thanks to several architectural and technical solutions.
BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN
Initially, the
approach of the architect was a bioclimatic building making an optimal use of
potential solar energy to heat the building, without being likely to turn into
drying oven in the summer. Concretely,
it is initially a question of literally designing the buildings around this
invisible energy, both in order to benefit from it and to protect itself from
it. That starts with the design and the organization of the building on the plot,
to make sure that its solar irradiation will not be affected by shade masks of
the surrounding tenements and conversely, that it does not deprive, by its dimension
and position, the surrounding buildings from free solar gains. Then, and
particularly under the continental climate of Mon, the building is designed
to benefit the best from free solar gains during the cold season thanks to passive
solutions, through gains, diffusion and storage of solar energy. A certain
number of aspects which are further detailed were the subject of a highest care:
orientation of the building, position and dimension of windows, pre-heating by
the bioclimatic greenhouse, earth cooling pipes, thermal inertia, extra insulation
of the building, etc? A contrario, in summer, the objective is to minimize
solar overheating inside the building by using solutions such as: plants, fixed
and mobile solar protections, inertia, natural ventilation, night ventilation,
effects of natural cross-ventilation, earth cooling pipes, passive cooling
through slabs connected to geothermal wells, etc? It results in high summer
comfort without air conditioning.
TECHNICAL
SYSTEMS
A whole of
technical systems supplements the bioclimatic design of the building, for the
heating, the domestic hot water and ventilation. A heating system with heat pump on geothermal
wells which make it possible to obtain a very good efficiency. Heat
distribution is carried out by a floor heating at low temperature. Two solar
panels were installed for the production of domestic hot water. A heat-recovery ventilation makes it possible
to recover heat on extracted air to preheat the entering air. The whole of the
lighting of the building, essentially containing fluorescent sources makes it
possible to contribute to energy saving.
Combined, these solutions allow a reduction of 75% of the power
consumptions of the building in regard to French regulation reaching as low as
40 kWhep/m/year when a standard office building goes way beyond 180
kWhep/m/year. Regulation of the building is controlled by automation which
controls heating, lighting, screenings, mechanical and natural ventilation,
earth cooling pipes, regulation of heating by zones, etc? Despite automation,
users have the possibility of controlling their own comfort by zones.
Energy
production renewable/positive energy
The
consumption of the building being thus considerably reduced, reaching easily a
zero energy objective implies that energy production of the building is higher
than its consumption. This is possible thanks to an building integrated photovoltaic
central (BIPV) of 360 m on the roof. Energy thus produced is sold to the
national Electricity provider (EDF) and
represents approximately 120 kWhep/m /ayear. Thus, taking into account
additional consumption of energy for the various office uses of about 60
kWhep/m/an (computers, servers, printers, coffee machines, etc?), a positive
energy balance is easily reached.
Energy for
heating, ventilation, domestic hot water, lighting: 40 kWhep/m /year
Other power
consumptions: 20 kWhep/m /year
Photovoltaic
Production: 120 kWhep/m /year
Total =
surplus of production of 60 kWhep/m /year
Carbon
balance
The design
of the building also aimed at establishing an exemplary carbon balance. Indeed,
carbon emission for build 1 m square represents, on a standard building,
equivalent the 30 years of carbon emission on the exploitation of the building.
Consequently, all the efforts were also put to reduce carbon emissions on the
construction itself. In the case of Sydesl, a great number of products of
completion were removed to give a unique raw aspect inside the building. It was
made an intensive use of timber, for the frame, windows, boarding, etc? The
carbon balance of the building to its delivery is thus improved considerably
taking into account the fact that wood stores carbon during its growth. Of
course, at delivery date, the building is not neutral and its construction
emitted carbon. This is compensated by the renewable photovoltaic energy production. Carbon neutrality of the building is awaited
approximately in 15/20 years, making, both conceptually and concretely the
SYDESL headquarter a unique pioneering building on an international scale.