The Aurecon Office Building is located in Western Cape, Cape Town. The 7,000 m2 office block was completed in 2011 and was developed by the Rabie Property Group, and designed by MaC Architects.
It is the first building in Cape Town and only the fifth country-wide to be awarded a 5 Star Green Star SA – Office Design v1 rating by the Green Building Council of South Africa.
Reported in March 2013
Aurecon’s office building achieves SA’s first 5 Star Green Star SA Rating
Aurecon’s office building in Century City, Cape Town, which is nearing completion, is the first building in South Africa to be awarded a 5 Star Green Star SA – Office Design v1 rating by the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA).
Developed by the Rabie Property Group at a cost of around R130 million, the 7000m2 office block is also the first building in Cape Town and only the fifth country-wide to achieve Green Star accreditation from the GBCSA.
The four other buildings all achieved a 4 Star rating. The new building will serve as the new regional office for the global engineering, management, and specialist technical services group Aurecon who were responsible for the design of all the engineering services on the project and also the Green Star Rating application, with assistance from PJ Carew.
Rabie director Colin Anderson, who was responsible for the development, says they were ecstatic with the achievement which was “doubly amazing given that we had to complete the building within a normal commercial budget”. “Our success is due to the commitment, hard work, and effort put into this project by the entire team and we thank them all for their valued contributions,” he said.
Albert Geldenhuys, Aurecon’s General Manager: in South Africa, said: “Increasingly, it has become important to demonstrate that our own buildings and facilities have been built in a sustainable manner. The group is committed to ensuring that we design and execute sustainable and environmentally responsible infrastructure projects and we have ensured that our teams include suitably trained and registered professionals, including environmentalists and Green Star SA Accredited Professionals.”
Announcing the 5 Star Green Star SA – Office Design v1 rating today, Bruce Kerswill, Executive Chairman of the GBCSA, said: “The GBCSA is thrilled that South Africa has its first 5-star certified building and that Cape Town is on the Green Star SA map. We wish to congratulate Aurecon and Rabie on their commitment to achieving this and we will be presenting the award at our annual Convention in October this year”.
Anderson said the 5 Star Rating had been achieved for the design of the building. “However, as the building has been built to design there is no reason stopping us from also applying for an As-Built Green Rating from the GBCSA. Only one other building in the country has so far achieved a Green Star rating in two categories and this was the Nedbank building in Johannesburg which achieved a 4 Star Green Star SA – Office Design v1 and a 4 Star Green Star SA – As Built v 1,” he said.
Aurecon fulfilled the role of a mechanical engineer and carried out specialist modeling for the green star submission for this project. Anderson said in their quest for a Green Star rating the professional team and building owners took into account the Green Star SA criteria, namely Management, Indoor Environmental Quality, Energy, Water, Transport, Materials, Emissions, Land Use, and Ecology and Innovation.
Finance for the development was provided by Nedbank Corporate Property Finance which has a long-standing relationship with the Rabie Group. “We are immensely proud to finance this important achievement,” says Frank Berkeley, managing executive of Nedbank Corporate Property Finance.
“For Nedbank, sustainability ultimately presents a means of achieving the delicate but essential balance between economic objectives, social development activities, and environmental responsibility.” The four-storey building, which has been constructed on a podium covering a naturally-ventilated semi-basement of covered parking, was designed by MaC Architects and its orientation ensures maximum indirect sunlight and reduced east and west direct sunlight.
Other green measures undertaken include:
– A state-of-the-art air-conditioning system with a full economy cycle to provide free cooling when outside conditions are favorable
– A state-of-the-art Building Management System which monitors and controls energy consumption
– Grey water irrigation and the harvesting of rainwater for the flushing of toilets
– High-performance glazing on the windows to reduce glare and radiant heat
– Innovative measures include the implementation of a “Green Lease”, believed to be the first in the country, in terms of which both the landlord and the tenant have undertaken to run the building as it was designed in terms of Green building principles
The professional team on the project includes Rabie Property Group (project managers), MaC Architects, Aurecon (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, and Structural Engineering and Environmental), Aurecon & PJ Carew Consulting (Green Consultants); Murray & Roberts (main Contractor); Richard Abrahamse (Land Surveyor), Planning Partners (Landscape Architect) and Davis Langdon (Quantity Surveying).
Ends
Issued jointly by Rabie Property Group, Aurecon, and the Green Building Council of South Africa.
About Rabie Property Group
Established in 1978, the Rabie Property Group, is one of South Africa’s leading property developers, having set trends and led the way with their award-winning residential and commercial projects and ground-breaking public-private partnerships and joint venture initiatives. The company’s primary focus is the Western Cape, where a number of its large mixed-use projects such as Century City, West Lake, Big Bay, and Royal Ascot, have literally shaped the urban landscape of Cape Town, creating landmark developments in which many thousands of people live, work, play and shop.
Reported in March 2016
Aurecon 2 awarded 5-Star Green Star rating
The second office block at Century City for global engineering company Aurecon has been awarded a 5-Star Green Star Office v1 Design rating by the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA).
The 3300 square meter building has been built adjacent to Aurecon’s original 7000 square meter premises which were in fact the first office building in South Africa to receive a 5-Star Green Star rating.
Aurecon was responsible for the design of all the engineering services of the project and also the Green Star Rating application, with assistance from Ludwig Design Consulting.
Developed by the Rabie Property Group for listed property development and investment group, Ingenuity Property Investments, Aurecon 2 brings to 10 the number of Green Star-rated buildings at Century City and to six the number that has achieved a 5-Star Green Star rating.
The other buildings to achieve five stars are Bridge Park East and West, which were also developed by Rabie Property Group, and No 17 Park Lane which is home to the Auditor General and which was developed by Asset Matrix. The sixth 5-Star rated building is Chevron.
All the other Green Star-rated buildings at Century City have achieved 4 Stars. They include the Business Centre and No 3 Bridgeways (home to Philip Morris) – both developed by the Rabie Property Group and both of which have achieved 4-Star ratings in the Design and As Built categories.
Ibis House in The Estuaries Office Park, which was developed by Horizon Capital, and Estuaries Plaza, which was developed by Asset Matrix, have both also achieved 4-Star Green Star ratings, the former in the design category and the latter in the As Built category.
In a similar vein, the Standard Bank branch in Canal Walk Shopping Centre also recently achieved a 4-Star Green Star Interiors v1 As Built rating.
A number of other applications for Green Star ratings are still pending including that of the Century City Urban Square which has been developed by Rabie at a cost of an R1billion and includes a Conference Centre, a 125-room hotel, offices, apartments, and restaurants in five buildings fronting onto a public square.
This development is in fact registered with the GBCSA as a pilot project for a new mixed-use rating tool. Bridge Park and Chevron’s respective applications in the As Built category are also still pending.
Rabie director, Colin Anderson, said their vision was to have the biggest concentration of green buildings in one precinct and this they were attempting to do in the Conference Centre precinct which is home to not only the buildings around the Square but also Chevron, Bridge Park, Nos 3 Bridgeways and the Business Centre.
“We firmly believe that by building green buildings, coupled with the roll-out of Century City Connect – the high-speed fiber optic network which enables the fastest connectivity speeds in Africa – we are ‘future proofing’ our buildings.”
