Technical study

Back towards zeroo

Siemens Middle East Headquarters, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi by Sheppard Robson Architects s

Sheppard Robsons Neo-High Modernist Siemens HQ Q at Masdar


  Feli ix Mara. Photography by 
 *
  
use

In pursuit of efficiency

1. Siemens Middle
East Headquarters
2. Masdar Institute of
Technology

Site plan

Sheppard Robsons Neo-High Modernist

Siemens HQ at Masdar successfully balances
performance with form, writes Felix Mara.
Photography by Nicole Luettecke

20m

Above North-west
elevation with
ground-oor
transfer structure
reducing load
points below

o some, Sheppard Robson

was perceived as a commercial
style-monger when it
reinvented itself in the 1990s,
emulating the forms rather than
the spirit of more innovative and
accomplished practices such as Fosters
or Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.
Yet today at Sheppard Robson, a
new generation has emerged which
is balancing performance, especially
of the sustainable variety, with >>

theaj.co.uk

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Siemens Middle East Headquarters, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi

Sheppard Robson International

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The Siemens HQ was

conceived as a highly
commercial animal
form. Its Siemens Middle East
Headquarters, opened last month in
the eco-city of Masdar, exemplies
thisspirit.
Siemens Middle East is
distinguished not so much as
innovative architecture, but as the
outcome of a rigorous, process-driven
design methodology, sharply focused
on its site and brief. Sheppard Robson
had to tackle not only an unfamiliar
and demanding climate, but also
separate performance requirements
set by Masdar City, the Emirate of
Abu Dhabi and Siemens itself, which,
despite the projects name, actually
occupies about 70 per cent of the
buildings oce oorplate. I took all
my European preconceptions out to
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Abu Dhabi and found they didnt

apply, says Sheppard Robson partner
David Ardill. We asked questions until
there were no more to ask.
Perhaps most challenging of
all, more than earlier and costlier
showcase projects at Masdar which
partly acted as built polemic, the
Siemens HQ was conceived as a
highly commercial animal, with cost
levels similar to a typical United
Arab Emirates headquarters. As it
happened, this clicked with Sheppard
Robsons dogged pursuit of eciency
and passive, optimal performance
balanced with provision for occupant
well-being, which is moredicult to
evaluate quantitatively. If the building
did not full these expectations or
make commercial sense, taking capital
and running costs into consideration,
it would soon become obsolete and
a waste ofresources. Eciency
acted as acommon denominator
for the projects sustainable and
commerciallogic. >>

2m

Above View from

south with Foster +
Partners Institute of
Technology to east.
Fins supporting
escape stair were
not required at
ground-oor level

Ground oor plan

2m

Typical oor plan

1. Reception
2. Retail
3. Ofce
4. Enclosed atrium
5. Atrium
6. Fabric canopy

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5m

Siemens Middle East Headquarters, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi

Sheppard Robson International

Sheppard Robson applied a

practice methodology which involves
sustainable design at four distinct
scales: masterplanning, overall building
form, larger elements such as atria and
more detailed components such as
columns. Work at each of these scales
was then integrated with output at the
other three. At the same time, working
with MEP and structural consultant
AECOM, Sheppard Robson gauged
the design and its environmental
performance against three standards:
the LEED Platinum certication
demanded by Siemens, the mandatory
requirements of an Emirate of Abu
Dhabi initiative called Estidama (which
means sustainability in Arabic), and
the 10 key performance indicators
set by Masdar City, which involve a
relaxation of its original CO2-neutral
target, but nevertheless seem ambitious
within the context of the UAE.
Following an exhaustive
optioneering exercise, Sheppard
Robson arrived at an overall building
concept which involved a four-storey
box of oce accommodation jacked up
above and shading open public space,
alongside enclosed, lobbied entrance
foyers and retail units at ground level.
Masdar are looking at revising the
masterplan so that it doesnt have a
podium, as in Fosters design, says
Ardill. So all the new buildings
will be on grade, and those which
surround the current podium will need
to accommodate the resulting level
change. The space below the Siemens
HQ, which Sheppard Robson refers to
as a plaza, is therefore stepped and has
an elaborate sequence of ramps.
Subject to other requirements
including oor-to-ceiling heights
set by Siemens, the surface area and
height of this box were minimised
to limit heat gain and cooling loads,
which are principal drivers in the
UAE. The oorplates also had to
be subdivisible into 32 tenancies
and exible, to avoid premature
obsolescence, so Sheppard Robson
chose an optimum span of 14.5m to
ensure column-free space and avoid
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1. Corner windows
widen to benet
from view on to
square
2. Fabric canopy
shaded roof terrace
3. Concrete slabs
thermal mass acts
as thermal store.
Option to remove
ceilings in future.
Void formers in slab

Right top
Aluminium
shading panels to
south-west facade

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reduce material use

and embodied CO2
4. Vertical louvres
prevent solar gain
from low-angle sun
5. Atria linked to plaza
release hot air
using stack effect.
Glazing maximised
to optimise daylight
into ofces
6. Proposed light

funnels to reect
light into plaza
diffuses light
into ofces. Not
adopted
7. Light shelves reect
summer afternoon
sun into plaza,
maximising daylight.
Not adopted above
rst-oor level.
8. Grey water

harvested for sitewide collection

9. Internal areas
lobbied to provide
thermal barrier
10. Proposal for
cooling air into
labyrinth reduces
temperature air into
AHU. Not adopted
11. Public realm steps
to make transition

between square
and Institute of
Technology
12. Exposed thermal
mass stabilises
ambient air
temperature in
public realm
13. Afternoon NWprevailing wind
cooled by shade
and trees in square

deep oor structures. The cores were

located at the building perimeter and,
from the various options, an array of
nine atria was chosen. Three of these
are open to the sky and the plaza below,
which they help to ventilate, and like
the others, which are enclosed, channel
skylight into the buildings internal and
externalspaces.
The oces were conceived as a box
within a box, with an outer layer of
solar shading and an inner layer with
high insulation and low air inltration,
to minimise radiant, convective and
conducted heat gain. As required by
the Masdar Energy Design Guidelines,
the proportion of vertical glazing
was limited to 35 per cent to reduce
the radiant heat gain through the
glass, and Sheppard Robson kept the
construction of the inner box very
simple and planar to minimise its
surface area, and avoid air inltration
and dust collection. Its cladding
modules were fabricated o-site for
enhanced performance and made as
large as possible to minimise junctions
and interfaces, which would have
increased costs and inltration rates.
Their light colour also reduces heat
absorption and helps to bring interreected daylight into the oces.
Heat loss is less of a concern than
cooling and humidity control in
Abu Dhabi, where winter heating
requirements are negligible. Natural>>

Siemens Middle East Headquarters, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi

Sheppard Robson Architects

ventilation of the oces would have

entailed ambient heat gain and
increased cooling loads, and AECOMs
energy modelling of various mechanical
alternatives demonstrated that a fan
coil system, rather than chilled beams,
would oer the optimal balance of cost
and benet. The option of windfunnels
wasalso explored, but wasdiscarded
after its sustainable andcost benets
were scrutinised.
Proposals for the Siemens
buildings orientation, fenestration
and solar shading were parametrically
modelled using bespoke algorithms
and integrated with requirements for
views, which entail LEED points.
There are views out from 85 per
cent of the oorplate. Concentrating
glass on the north elevations would
have oered only limited heat-gain
reduction because of radiation through
the glazing. Although two horizontal
strips of glazing per oor would have
provided better daylight, Sheppard
Robson settled for one to reduce costs
and rationalise construction.
Each facade has a unique
arrangement of 4mm aluminium
solar-shading elements, sculpted by
the movement of the sun, and these
provide total shading of the glass
for 95 per cent of the time. Internal
glare-control blinds were considered
unnecessary. Because the brisesoleils have large projections from
the facades, it was possible to raise
them above occupants views lines
without compromising solar shading.
Their geometry is free of horizontal
surfaces which would have gathered
dust, and the shelf which reects
daylight into the plaza is perforated.
High-performance or reective glass
was unnecessary, and the glazing
specication was driven by the need for
transparency and insulation.
The design team continued its
quest for high performance, eciency,
waste limitation, exibility, and low
operational and embodied CO2
emissions in the Siemens HQs
structural design, detailed construction
and specication. The oor slabs
theaj.co.uk

Middle East Headquarters has the

mark of a project whose designers have
bravely returned to rst principles and,
like the exponents of High Modernism,
damned the consequences. As a result,
like much of these exponents output,
Siemens has a raw, unsettling quality,
and a pioneering spirit. It is, like its
context, unique. Q

Facade detail

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9

Project data

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1. 4mm aluminium
shading panel
2. Insulated render
3. Concrete wall and
slab
4. Ceiling
5. Steel tie
6. Double-glazed strip
window
7. 150mm raised oor
8. 400mm posttensioned slab
9. EPS void former

Right Helical stair

in enclosed atrium
using Macalloy
tension rods to
minimise load from
structural members

0.2m

are post-tensioned, with EPS block

void llers which the quantity of
concrete, and therefore its load, by 60
per cent. With no downstand beams,
they enabled the height of the oce
block to be reduced and provided
exibility in the routing of high-level
services. The brise-soleils, which
gain strength from their twisting
geometry, are hung o the facade
with no secondary frame, minimising
their weight. Elements such as helical
stairs are suspended from Macalloy
tension members to reduce loads.
Self-nishing structural elements
avoided the need for overcladding,
and the specication prioritised local,
durable materials, benchmarked against
Estidama requirements and Masdar
embodied CO2 targets, with high
recycled and rapidly renewable content
and low VOCs. Needless to say, water
conservation was also a top priority.
Theres a ne line between
shrewdly discarding preconceptions
and foolishly ignoring hard-earned
wisdom. Concepts such as legibility
and exibility are suciently universal
to be useful in any context, but Siemens

start on site September 2011

completion January 2014
gross internal area 22,800m2
procurement Traditional
cost Undisclosed
client ADFEC (Masdar)
architect Sheppard Robson International
structural engineer AECOM
mep consultant AECOM
cost consultant AECOM
project manager Morganti
main contractor Al Faraa General Contracting
Company
energy savings (ahsrae 90.1 2007 baseline) 46%
annual energy demand reduction (abu dhabi
baseline) 62% over typical UAE commercial
office 102.6kWh/m2
annual operational co2 reduction 45% over
typical UAE commercial office
water demand reduction 50% reduction over
typical commercial office (US EPA baseline)
waste diversion to landfill 98%
embedded co2 reduction of materials min 30%
estimated embodied co2 8,420.73 metric tons
estimated annual operational co2 emissions
2,280.65 metric tons
estimated annual co2 emissions (year one only)
10,701.38 metric tons
on-site renewable provision 3% (72,662kWh)
calculated annual fixture water use per
occupant 2,941.95m
annual mains water consumption per occupant
2.18m (not including irrigation)
airtightness at 50pa 3.68m3/h.m2
annual generated solar hot water energy
72,662.38kWh
vertical glazing ratio (gross window-to-wall)
30.6% glazing
vertical glazing shgc (solar heat gain
coefficient) 0.42
vertical glazing light transmittance 0.564
horizontal glazing ratio (gross skylight-toroof) 6.2% roof area
horizontal shgc 0.413
horizontal light transmittance 0.562
shgc 0.25
roof solar reflective index min 78
software used MicroStation, SketchUp, Bentley
Architecture BIM software, IESVE 6.4.0.9 energy
modelling software

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