About

The SCGZero+ project is designed to be the first “5Zero” office building – Zero carbon, Zero energy, Zero water, Zero waste, and Zero formaldehyde that houses 400+ staff in Shanghai, China. The project seeks to build on dB(A)’s experience in designing Pixel, to achieve a new global benchmark and highest scores in LEED, BREEAM, WELL, China3Star and China Healthy Building. The goal is to achieve the world’s most exemplary status in sustainability in order to help China and the world in our race to reach net zero as soon as possible. Invested and constructed by SCG, dB(A) and SCG LDI have gathered a team of the world’s best experts in international and local sustainable design to realise the project. Working from our globally distributed virtual offices throughout 2019 and 2020, the team has minimised CO2 in design, and sought to ensure the very best innovation and insight is applied in design thinking.

Design Statement

The vision for the SCGZero+ project is driven by ‘Life’. ‘Life’ is a complex, ordered, and symbiotic relationship between the infinite threads of our world, woven into a harmonious tapestry. A project that achieves the world’s most exemplary status in sustainability must be a project that lives, and weaves harmony into its ideation, operations and built form. It is a project that communicates and celebrates the cycles of the natural world and educates culturally about the connectedness of our bodies and business to the complex, subtle and powerful rhythms of nature. Our architecture is driven by this notion of being connected and interdependent, of linkage and exchange of energy, of ideas and of vision.

Site

Located in Taopu Zhichuang City, Putuo District, Shanghai, the project site area is 3422 sqm, with a total construction area of 11509 sqm – 4548 sqm below ground and 6313 sqm above ground. The proposal applies green concepts and technologies throughout the entire life cycle of the building’s design, construction, operation, and maintenance. It implements the highest domestic green standards to minimise energy consumption and environmental pollution, whilst maximising comfort and enjoyment of its purpose.

Construction

The project adopts prefabricated construction methodologies, application of modular high-performance green building systems, aimed to minimise the workload on site. This in turn, reduces the noise, exhaust, and wastewater discharge caused by on-site operations.
In addition, the solid waste generated in the different stages of construction will be minimised, and where waste is created, it will be classified according to its source, composition, physical and chemical properties, etc. for upcycling, reuse, recycling, and reclamation where possible. The management of the whole process will be translated into educational and demonstrational technical case studies for improving the systematic procedures in green construction for the future.

Facade

The façade is our key interface with the world, it is the key to operation and Passivhaus creation. It is airtight, triple glazed, prefabricated and extremely sophisticated. We have grown the understanding deployed in Pixel to improve the living edge, to maximise PV generation and improve daylighting. The façade of the project is its skin, and like our own skin, it is a complex interface, enabling natural ventilation, water harvesting, thermally broken structures and impressive connection to exterior views and daylight.

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Source: Decibel Architecture