Focus on sustainability
As soon as in the competition programme for the new Spiegel
Headquarters, focus was on sustainability. During the design phase,
it was decided to increase requirements in order to meet the
special certification developed for Hafencity. This certification
is tighter than other certifications in Germany and is considered
as a forerunner of the requirements that will be incorporated into
German building regulations in the years to come.
"Hafencity Umweltzeichen" applies a broad definition of the concept
of sustainability and has divided the different themes into five
categories in which specific objectives must be achieved in order
to obtain silver or gold. In order to win a gold medal, three out
of five categories must achieve gold. In the Spiegel project, the
objective is to achieve gold in four categories. The project has
been pre-approved for gold but the final granting will not take
place until the completed building has been tested and meets
requirements.
CATEGORY 1: ENERGY CONSUMPTION
The calculated energy consumption of the
Spiegel building amounts to 80 Kwh/m2/year.
CATEGORY 2: HANDLING OF PUBLIC RESOURCES
A precondition for meeting the requirements of this category is
that an architectural competition for the assignment has been held.
Henning Larsen Architects won the assignment in a competition with
12 other invited architectural companies.
In addition, public access to the site is required just as the
public functions on the ground floor must meet certain
requirements.
CATEGORY 3: ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY BUILDING MATERIALS
In this category, the requirements for gold are so high that it
would not be possible to meet these with a high-rise building as
the requirements are based on the use of wood as a building
material.
However, the Spiegel project meets the requirements for silver due
to a comprehensive test of all building materials.
CATEGORY 4: HEALTH AND COMFORT
The requirements of this category are met by means of solutions
creating a good and healthy indoor climate, including specific
requirements for the degasification of substances (TVOC less than
1.5 mg/m3, tested on site after completion), suspension of
biocides, halogen free fire proofing as well emission free
materials or materials with a low emission on all surfaces.
A minimum of 20 % of the activity areas must be accommodated to
allergic people. This means that all materials and solutions should
be tested to ensure that they are cleaning-friendly.
CATEGORY 5: ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY OPERATION
This category is about incorporating sustainability in the
construction as well as the operational phase.