Netzero Bulletin

OFF | Soliel Alt+E | Building Beyond Net Zero

Solar Decathlon India May 4, 2021

Letting Net-zero Take Over

Considering the fact that zero energy buildings relieve the world of carbon emissions and understanding how nature desperately needs healing net zero could be the next big thing. India is a developing economy with bright opportunities in various sectors, with the IT and financial sector leading the way by contributing 7.9% to India’s GDP.

The Team Soleil Alt +E from Nirma University, aims to achieve a net zero office building and create spaces which provide a healthy working environment and spaces that facilitate interaction. The team came together to carry out design related discussions and meetings which helped us find distinct solutions for our project. Multiple meetings with the industry partners gave us an insight regarding the technical aspects concerning the design. Gujarat International Finance Tec-city Company Limited is a joint venture between the Government of Gujarat and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services. It is an emerging global financial and IT services hub, a first of its kind in India, designed to be at or above par with globally benchmarked business districts which helps in changing the economic face of Gujarat and keeps India on the global map as Centre of excellence in the Financial & IT/ITeS Services domain.

“The EDGE” is an office building which will be built, owned and operated by the GIFT city. Our project is a small-scale IT Service with 225-250 occupants having 7-8 operating hours for 25-27 days a month. The Edge is a 6 storey tall building having a total site area of 1300 sq.mts. with a built up area of 3290 sq. mts. The design that has managed to find an optimum solution aligns with the competition goals for Architecture, Energy efficiency, Engineering, Resilience, Operations, Comfort, Financial Feasibility and Market Potential. The design incorporates multiple passive strategies in order to make it a net-zero energy building.

Comfort and environment Quality

The vertical gardens on the southern facade help in reducing the thermal load and provide a cooler environment whilst adding to the aesthetics. The incorporation of two wind towers in the building helps in proper aeration between the spaces along with the fins on the facade that increase the ventilation inside the building up to 30%. The placement of the corridors and staircases acts as buffer spaces and the working spaces are north aligned to keep them away from the harsh sunlight, whereas the solar PV panels on the southern side increase the efficiency that further contributes in creating a net zero building. To provide a healthy working environment and to improve the thermal comfort inside the spaces, the CPU units have been allotted a different room that reduce the heat load in the other spaces of the office.

Water Performance

Collecting rainwater through the hardscape areas and the roofs;modulated towards the storage trench for better efficiency. Grey water is treated by the means of rootzone treatment and reused for irrigation and flushing which saves fresh water.

Resilience

Storage tank and fire safety tank have been used for storage in case of emergency, the water from the fire safety tank is used as a sprinkler system for fire safety. Incorporating UPS systems in the CPU room helps in providing electricity for at least 3 hours in case of supply outage.

Affordability

Using local and precast materials, saves the cost by 20%. The precast ferrocement shells reduce the dead load, usage of material, time and energy on site and also the overall carbon footprint. The brick cavity walls reduce the heat gain inside the building while the RCC framework helps in the structural strength.

Market Potential

There are a total of 31,922 registered (IT) companies functioning in the country. GIFT City being a Financial & Technological Gateway of India for the World, aims to achieve the significant position by helping the state in increasing the number of IT firms and our project aspires to be one of those along with being a net zero building. Congestion, higher cost of living and inefficiency which are just a few challenges which can be converted into opportunities by the choices of humans. People come out with solutions for such transformations but they overlook one major strategy of energy efficient or net-zero buildings. This one strategy that we tried to incorporate in this project helped us confront and understand major issues like climate change and public health problems.

We are grateful to the Solar Decathlon as this project gave us the opportunity to explore and expand our scope of knowledge in the field of efficient building design.

source